The Buckeye Singles Council started “National Singles Week” in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize the single and unmarried people who make up roughly half the U.S. adult population. The week is now widely observed during the third full week of September (Sept. 18-24 in 2016) as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed. In this edition of Facts for Features, unmarried people include those who were never married, widowed or divorced, unless otherwise noted.

Single Life

109 million

The number of unmarried people in America 18 and older in 2015. This group made up 45 percent of all U.S. residents 18 and older.

Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html

53%

The percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older who were women in 2015; 47 percent were men.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html

63%

The percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older in 2015 who had never been married. Another 24 percent were divorced and 13 percent were widowed.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html

19 million

The number of unmarried U.S. residents 65 and older in 2015. These seniors made up 18 percent of all unmarried people 18 and older.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html

88

The number of unmarried men 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States in 2015.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html

59 million

The number of households maintained by unmarried men and women in 2015. These households comprised 47 percent of households nationwide.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table H1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html

35 million

The number of people who lived alone in 2015. They comprised 28 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table H-1, America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 1960 to Present, Table HH-4
www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015H.html

Parenting

36%

The percentage of women age 15 to 50 with a birth in the last 12 months, as of 2014, who were widowed, divorced or never married.
Source: 2014 American Community Survey, Table B13002 http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_5YR/B13002

39%

The percentage of opposite-sex, unmarried-partner couples in 2015 that lived with at least one biological child of either partner.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table UC3 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015UC.html

788,730

The number of unmarried grandparents who were responsible for most of the basic care of a co- resident grandchild in 2014; 30 percent of coresident grandparents responsible for their grandchildren were unmarried.
Source: 2014 American Community Survey, Table B10057 http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_14_1YR _B10057&prodType=table

Unmarried Couples

7 million

The number of unmarried-partner households in 2014. Of this number, 448,271 were same-sex households.
Source: 2014 American Community Survey Table, B11009 http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_1YR/B11009

Voters

39%

The percentage of voters in the 2012 presidential election who were unmarried, compared with 24 percent of voters in the 1972 presidential election.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2012, Table 9, and Characteristics of New Voters: 1972
www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2012/tables.html www.census.gov/topics/public-sector/voting/data/tables.1972.html

35%

The percentage of voters in the 2014 November congressional election who were unmarried. Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2014, Table 9
www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/voting-and-registration/p20-577.html

Education

87%

The percentage of unmarried people 25 and older in 2015 who had completed high school or more education
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2015, Table 2 www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2015/tables.html

27%

The percentage of unmarried people 25 and older in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree or more education.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2015, Table 2 www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2015/tables.html

Source: U.S. Census Bureau – Facts for Features
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2016/cb16-ff18.html