More than any other time in American history, people in 2023 are choosing to live alone.
Those numbers come from the latest U.S. Census, which reports that the number of Americans recorded as “solitaries” in their household has more than tripled over the last eight decades.
The 1940 Census revealed that only 8% of households had just one occupant. In the ensuing 30 years, that number more than doubled to 18% by 1970.
As of 2022, about 29% of people have chosen a solitary existence.
Researchers have noted the change worldwide as much as here in the U.S., calling it more a transformation than simply a trend.
"More [people] can afford to live alone," social scientist Bella DePaulo told CBS Austin.
DePaulo has authored a forthcoming book, Single at Heart, and said women in the evolution of women in the workplace has been a major component in the increase of solitaries.
“Women in the past were more often tethered to a husband for economic life support. Now more women have their own jobs,” she said
In 1960, 30% of the workforce in America was women. Now, women are actually the majority of all workers at 56.8%.
“The solo-living movement intersects with several other societal trends,” reads a report from The Hill. “Americans are marrying later, if at all. The nation is aging. The national birthrate is falling. People are living longer — or they were, until the pandemic arrived.”
Related
