Solitary Living on the Rise in the United States

(AmeriStat, November 2001) The number of Americans living alone is on the rise. In 2000, there were 27.2 million individuals living alone, an increase of 4.7 million since 1990. Some decry this trend as evidence of the disintegration of the American institutions of marriage and family. But does the increase in single householders really herald a weakening of America’s social fabric?

While the number of householders living alone has increased in the last decade, this is not necessarily because more people are opting out of marriage. Instead, it reflects a broad transformation of marriage patterns and living arrangements in the United States. At younger ages, it means that more people, especially women, are postponing marriage to attend college and start careers; at older ages, it means that a smaller share of people are residing in nursing homes, and more people are choosing to maintain their own homes or apartments.

There are also substantial regional variations in the proportion living alone. Single-occupant households are most common in Washington, D.C. (44 percent), North Dakota (29 percent), and Rhode Island (29 percent) and least common in Idaho (22 percent), Hawaii (22 percent), and Utah (18 percent). In addition to Washington, D.C., the cities with the highest proportions of single-occupant households include Alexandria, Virginia (43 percent); Cincinnati, Ohio (43 percent); and Cambridge, Massachusetts (41 percent).

*Washington, D.C. is treated as a state equivalent for statistical purposes.

Household Types, 1990 and 2000

	1990		2000
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
Households	91,947,410	100.0	105,480,101	100.0
Family households	64,517,947	70.2	71,787,347	68.1
Single-occupant households	22,580,420	24.6	27,230,075	25.8
Other nonfamily households	4,849,043	5.3	6,462,679	6.1

Source: United States Census Bureau, Census 2000.

Citations

Analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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