Single-Person Households

The single-person household is a household that contains one person who lives alone. In a culture that includes family and marriage as part of the American Dream, the single-person household is a growing demographic. As a result of the rise in divorce rates since the 1950s, the increasing average age of marriage, and the choice of some to put off marriage entirely, more and more people are opting to live by themselves. Paul C. Glick reported that single-person households grew by 120 percent between 1970 and 1992. That number has continued to increase to include nearly 30 million unmarried men and women who live by themselves (U.S. Census Bureau 2006), and that number is not expected to decline any time in the near future. Such ...