WASHINGTON — For the first time, single adults outnumber couples
with children as the most common type of household in the United
States, according to new tabulations of the 2000 census.
In 1990, couples with children were the most prevalent family type,
followed by singles, childless couples and single parents.
Previous studies showed that singles had moved ahead of
married-with-children households. But the Census Bureau analysis,
released Tuesday, is the first to divide homes by whether they have
partners of any sort, regardless of marital status. Previous
examinations put families in one category and "nonfamilies,"
including unmarried couples, in another.
The report, based on new calculations of the 2000 and 1990 tallies,
found that solo households grew by 21% over the decade, while the
next-largest category, married couples without children, grew by
11%. As a result, married or unmarried couples with children make up
31.3% of all homes. Individuals make up 31.6%.
The extent of the shift was no surprise to San Francisco author
Sasha Cagen, who wrote "Quirkyalone: A Manifesto for Uncompromising
Romantics."
The book is being translated into Portuguese and German after
bringing her broad notoriety as a prophet of the voluntarily single.
"For people like me," Cagen said, "living alone is the big step into
adulthood. Forty years ago, people went directly from their parents'
home to a marital home, with maybe a brief stopover of living with a
roommate."
No more. Michael Carline, an economist with the National Assn. of
Home Builders, said unmarried people "are probably not just thinking
of it as a transitional arrangement. That makes them more likely to
buy a house."
For builders, he said, that means a bigger market for homes with
less privacy, fewer rooms, and reduced square footage, but "more
Jacuzzis."
"They place a greater priority on being close to the action,"
Carline said.
"They are not worried about school districts or space, so they put a
higher priority to being close in. That's been a factor in boosting
demand for urban or close-in suburban housing."
Thomas F. Coleman, executive director of Unmarried America, an
information service in Glendale, said the increase in singles was
showing up in consumer goods. As evidence, he pointed to the Bambino
watermelon, a cantaloupe-sized melon first marketed in 2004, and to
an increase in the availability of individual-serving containers at
warehouse stores such as Costco.
For the first time, the Census Bureau also analyzed whether
households included partners, regardless of marital status. It found
60 million households in which the person responding to the census
survey lived with a partner, compared with 46 million without.
The new analysis puts 3.3 million homes that were previously
considered "nonfamily households" into the new "partner household"
category.
It also shows that 15 million households in which there were family
members — children or parents, for example — did not have a partner
present.
The number of households reporting an unmarried partner rose by 72%
from 1990 to 2000. Whether that reflects an increase in committed
unmarried relationships or an increased willingness to admit to a
partner's presence cannot be determined from the census figures,
U.S. census demographer Bill Hobbes said.
Although committed partnership is still more popular than the single
life, an analysis of long-term trends by Unmarried America shows
that living alone has staged a long, gradual climb since at least
1960, when 13% of American households had one member.
By 1980, that had increased to 23%.
Cagen said the change was partly economic.
As Americans work more, she said, "people don't have time to meet a
significant other or even just friends. And finding someone to date
becomes a job too, so we have speed dating and online dating."
Marshall Miller, co-founder of the Alternatives to Marriage Project,
an advocacy group in Albany, N.Y., said the new numbers should serve
as a "wake-up call to the politicians and pundits about what is
going on in the real lives of real Americans."