"What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve, AI?" The Rise of Singlehood |
In rich countries around the globe, singlehood is on the rise. The percentage of people living without a partner (spouse, lover, etc.) has doubled in the past 50 years, to half of all men and 41% of all women (The Economist, 2025).
This statistic can be interpreted in different ways. A stat such as this is cause for alarm if you’re a pro-natalist. These are folks who advocate for higher birth rates because they have concerns about “population collapse” (Mosley, 2025). They have zero concerns about overpopulation, holding firmly to the notion that eight billion plus humans are not enough, and to the ethnonationalist idea that “a strong nation” is a populous one. Couplehood and more children are crucial, from the pro-natalist perspective.
Others would view rising singlehood as an indicator of self-reliance and increased capacity to consciously and intentionally choose whether or not to partner or to reproduce. For instance, with increased employment opportunities, women have greater economic independence and can decide to live alone with less shaming and blaming than in the past. Both men and women can decide if they will partner with someone, and why, not based on traditional scripts handed down by family and society, but on their own sets of priorities and goals, with perhaps fewer concerns about shunning and stigmatization today.
As a couple and family therapist, I suspect that