Julia Carpenter at The Wall Street Journal writes that even though the number of one-person households in the United States doubled in the last 40 years there are fewer options than ever for them…(Wall Street Journal)
- Sole-person households almost doubled to 36.1 million in 2020 from 18.2 million in 1980. Of that group, 39% are baby boomers, 19% identify as members of the millennial generation, while another 19% belong to Gen X…
- The supply of entry-level housing is near a five-decade low. “Which means bidding wars on properties, with some young people being cut out of the wealth growth that homeownership can bring. At the same time, older Americans hoping to downsize are now often stuck in their homes longer, adding to a broader supply shortage.”
Joe Pinsker at The Atlantic writes that despite the growth of single-person households, “these people are still living in a society that is tilted against them.” (The Atlantic)
- FINANCIALLY: “One recent study estimated that, for a couple, living separately is about 28 percent more expensive than living together.”
- SOCIALLY: “Recipes are rarely written for a single diner, and DePaulo said that she has heard from single people who have had trouble booking restaurant reservations for one…they are regular reminders that American society still assumes that the default adult has a partner and that the default household contains multiple people.”
