More Americans are single than ever. The 2017 U.S. Census report found that 110.6 million people were unmarried or 45.2 percent of the total adult population.
Here’s the breakdown of those stats: 63 percent have never been married, 23 percent are divorced, and 13 percent are widowed.
Most single people live on their own. And more than half of the single population, 53 percent are women.
There are loads of reasons why people are choosing to stay single.
Some of the main reasons that more people are single these days are the way we think about marriage.
Marriage is no longer considered a key part of adulthood. Modern times are also leading adults to focus on completing their schooling and having full-time employment, according to CNN.
“People are spending a big chunk of their lives — much of the 20s and even into their 30s, increasingly — becoming a grown up,” Eric Klinenberg, a sociology professor at New York University and the author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, told PRI.org. “They’re investing their time in their job, they feel anxious about their career and they’re having a very difficult time moving into that next stage of what we’ve traditionally thought of as grown-up life.”
Living alone is also becoming more popular, as is living with a partner who you aren’t married to.
Teenagers aren’t into dating or sex in high school so they are entering the dating world later in life.
More people are also waiting until they find the right person they truly love rather than settling for the sake of companionship, according to The Pew Research Center.
Nine in 10 Americans or 88 percent cite love as a very important reason to get married compared to 81 percent who said making a lifelong commitment, 76 percent who said companionship, 28 percent who said financial stability, and 23 percent who said legal rights and benefits.
“It’s actually probably easier to meet people now than ever before if you think about all of the incredible technologies we have to connect,” said Klinenberg. “But one big issue is people today are really looking for their soul mate and they’re not going to compromise.”
But why are women specifically staying single? Here might be a few reasons why:
1) Single Older Women Are No Longer Considered Spinsters
Unwed older women are no longer seen as cat-lady spinsters. Instead of being considered unlucky in love or “damaged,” being single is a conscious choice women make. Women want marriage because it’s the right time with the right person, not because we are socially pressured into doing so or are racing against some kind of biological clock..
“When women’s life choices were highly constrained, they had little negotiating power,” Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington, wrote for CNN. “They had to marry or were seen as damaged … It’s different now. While most women still want marriage, they don’t want it at just any price. They don’t want it if it scuttles their dreams.”
2) Women Make Their Own Money
Once upon a time, women didn’t work. They strictly stayed home to take care of the house and the children. So, they had to rely on their husbands for financial support.
But women no longer have to financially rely on men.
“I think a lot of us just don’t think marriage is that important because it doesn’t offer the security it once did,” Norah, 27, told Mic. “It’s not as necessary anymore because I can work. I can support myself.”
3) Women Are Learning To Love Themselves
We hear a lot these days about learning to love yourself along with the body positivity movement. The media landscaping is changed the way we view women and becoming increasingly more inclusive of women of all body shapes which helps women to accept themselves as they are rather than aspiring to unattainable looks.
When women learn to love themselves they won’t put themselves in relationships that are toxic for them and will hold out for someone suitable. Women are also learning to be in relationships with themselves and are learning how to create their own happiness rather than relying on a significant other for happiness.
4) Women Are More Educated
More women pursue higher education. As of 2011, more than 10.6 million women had masters or higher degrees compared to 10.5 million men. It’s likely that women want to date someone who is on the same educational level as them. They also will pursue higher-level careers and academic which takes up their time that would otherwise spend dating or looking for a partner.
5) There Might Be A Shortage Of Men
Jon Birger claims in his book “Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game,” hat there is a nationwide man deficit.
He says that there are 5.5 million college-educated women between 22 and 29 in the United States and there are only 4.1 million college-educated men in the same demographic. He says this leaves a shortage of single men for single women.
“For young, college-educated adults, the heterosexual dating pools in cities such as Manhattan or colleges such as Boston University have three women for every two men,” Birger told Mic.
6) Women Have Better Role Models
Women are growing up with better role models. We have iconic women we look up to and we look up to them because of their careers and contributions to society, like real-life heroes such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We also see strong and powerful women in media and entertainment. Instead of growing up idolizing princesses and damsels waiting to be saved, we see figures like Wonder Woman or Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.
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