Tuesday, January 7, 2003

A story released today by Divorce-Online reports that according to a new research more and more of Brits are deciding to live on our own. Almost one in three British houses now has just one occupant, a figure which has almost doubled from 17 percent in 1971 to 31 percent in 2001, and the Government estimates that it will reach 40 percent by 2010.

The number of single women has also doubled in the past 23 years, according to research by the Office for National Statistics for its Living in Britain -- 2001 General Household Survey.

Single celebrities expounded the benefits of the single life -- yet many singletons still feel there is a stigma attached to being unattached. Singletons are penalized by travel companies that extract single occupancy supplements and supermarkets which charge a premium for meals-for-one, while some find themselves unable to get on the soaring property ladder because they do not have a double-income borrowing power.

On a very basic level, the rise in single households is raising demand for housing. Around 1.1 million new houses will be needed in the South-east of England alone by 2016. With marriages happening later in life, and divorces on the increase, there are simply more single people on the property market, says Halifax economist Mark Ellis.

The bank found 40 percent of homebuyers were single in 2001, compared with one quarter in 1983, and the proportion of single women buying their own home has also risen from eight percent to 15 per cent in the past two decades.

"It is imperative that planners and builders take account of this when deciding what types of properties to build and where to build them," says Ellis. "It's no use building three or four bedroom houses when the demand is for one or two bedroom houses and flats."

But analysts at the Future Foundation, a think tank that advises companies on better ways to understand their customer base, and its subsidiary nVision, do question whether this rise in single households is the result of dramatically changing attitudes or simply a shift in circumstances.

Some analysts believe a large factor in the rise in singles is down to people living longer, choosing to marry later in life and outliving spouses, rather than a conscious choice to go through life as singletons.

But data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) shows that by the age 30 around 45 percent of people are married, with about another 30 percent cohabiting with a partner. Almost 70 percent of 36-to-40-year-olds are married, with a further 15 percent cohabiting, giving a total of more than 80 percent who are living with a spouse or partner.

In the 21-25 age group around 25 percent said they had such a relationship, with this declining by age as respondents get married or start to live together. Even among the 30-55 age group, however, around six percent to seven percent of respondents were in what they described as a long term relationship, but not living with that person.

Significantly these "LATs" (Living Apart -- Together) accounted for around a third of all nominally "single" people in that age range, and when they were included in the married, cohabiting group, the proportion of people who were currently "100 per cent single" dropped considerably.

Analysis also reveals that single people in LAT relationships live very differently to those who are completely single. The aspirations, spending patterns and characteristics of those who have found a long term partner -- even if they are not living with them -- were markedly different from those completely single.