It's no secret that there are plenty of eligible bachelors around. And, now we've got the data to back it up. It turns out that more than half of the country's adults are currently single.
According to data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50.2% of adults in the U.S. are single for the first time since the government started keeping track since 1976. Back then, only 37.4% of the population was single. The increase means that today, there are 124.6 million single Americans.
The trend was first flagged by economist Edward Yardeni in a report sent out to his company's clients this week, reports Bloomberg. And, interestingly, that percentage was just under the 50% mark for much of 2013 — it was only this summer that we made it over 50%.
The report interprets this to mean that more people are probably living alone and, therefore, paying more for rent. But, the definition of "single" here is the government's, which includes anyone who isn't married. So, a larger percentage of singles doesn't necessarily mean there are fewer people in relationships. This could be due in part to the larger trend of younger people waiting longer to get married (or, not being able to get married at all). But, actually, we welcome the dawning of the age of the chic, single lady (cats optional).
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