The Buckeye Singles Council recognizes “National Singles Week”, which started in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and credit singles and their contributions to society.
The week is now observed during the third full week of Sept.16 to 22 as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week”.
Many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed. America’s Families and Living Arrangement and other sources provide some statistics:
Did you know that there are 102 million unmarried people in America that are 18 and older? This group has comprised 44.1 percent of all U.S. residents that are 18 and older, America’s Families and Living Arrangement says. Fifty-three percent of this group was women, and 47 percent were men.
Sixty-two percent of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older in 2011 had never been married. Another 24 percent have been divorced and 14 percent were widowed. Seventeen million of U.S. residents 65 and older in 2011 comprised 16 percent of all unmarried people 18 and older.
There are 89 unmarried men to every 100 unmarried women in the United States. Fifty-five million households are maintained by unmarried men, which is 46 percent of households nationwide. Thirty-three million people lived alone in 2011.
In 2011, 13.6 million unmarried parents lived with their children. Of these, 10 million were unmarried mothers, 1.7 was unmarried fathers, and 1.9 million were unmarried couples with at least one shared child. Forty percent of opposite-sex, unmarried partner households included at least one biological child of either partner. Nearly 820,000 unmarried grandparents were caregivers for their grandchildren in 2010. They comprised about three in ten grandparents who were responsible for their grandchildren.
In 2010, 6.8 million people were in unmarried households. Of this number, 593,000 were same-sex households.
In the 2010 November election, 35 percent of the voters were unmarried according to Voting and Registration. Thirty-eight percent of voters in the 2008 election were unmarried.
Thirty-three percent of unmarried people 25 and older in 2011 had a high school diploma or their highest level of attainment. Twenty-five percent of unmarried people in the same group had a bachelor’s degree or were more educated.