After a Lull, Report Shows That Americans Are Back to Living Alone

• June 29, 2016

by Nena Perry-Brown

Over the last five years, the number of people living alone began to plateau following decades of steady increases. Now, the percentage of people living solo is heading back up, fueled by the middle-aged demographic — especially men.

“The share of elderly men aged 70-and-up who live alone has been essentially stable over time, but the share of men living alone aged 30-to-69 has increased, particularly since 2010 among men in their late 50s and early 60s,” a new report from Zillow states. “A generation ago, the share of men living alone tended to peak around age 28-29 before declining steadily through their mid-40s most likely as they married and started families.”

However, by the 1990s, the trend shifted toward more men living alone in their 20s, plateauing through in the 40s, and then increasing again toward their late 50s and early 60s.

As for adults in their twenties — the demographic that one would expect to live alone — they are about as likely to live alone now as they were a generation ago, the report concludes, although the percentage of young women living alone has ticked up slightly.

Over the past four decades, the share of adults living alone as a result of divorce or having never been married has consistently trended upward. The share of adults living alone as a result of being widowed has dropped much more dramatically over that time — especially for women.

As for the elderly, women aged 60-plus are far less likely to live alone now than they were in the late 1970s. For women 78 years and older, the share living alone has dropped over the past generation to 41 percent from 53 percent.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_look_at_who_is_living_alone/11412