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Facts for Features: Unmarried and Single Americans Week Sept. 21-27, 2014

Press Release Number CB14-FF.21

The Buckeye Singles Council started "National Singles Week" in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during the third full week of September (Sept. 21-27 in 2014) as "Unmarried and Single Americans Week," an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word "single" because they are parents, have partners or are widowed. In this edition of Facts for Features, unmarried people include those who were never married, widowed or divorced, unless otherwise noted.

Single Life

105 million

Number of unmarried people in America 18 and older in 2013. This group made up 44 percent of all U.S. residents 18 and older.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013A.html> Table A1

53%

Percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older who were women in 2013; 47 percent were men.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013A.html> Table A1

62%

Percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older in 2013 who had never been married. Another 24 percent were divorced, and 14 percent were widowed.

Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013A.html> Table A1

18 million

Number of unmarried U.S. residents 65 and older in 2013. These seniors made up 17 percent of all unmarried people 18 and older.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013A.html> Table A1

87

Number of unmarried men 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States in 2013.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013A.html> Table A1

57 million

Number of households maintained by unmarried men and women in 2013. These households comprised 46 percent of households nationwide.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2013A.html> Table A2

34 million

Number of people who lived alone in 2013. They comprised 27 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970.
Sources: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/hh4.xls> Table HH-4

Parenting

36%

Percentage of women 15 to 50 with a birth in the last 12 months, as of 2012, who were widowed, divorced or never married.
Source: 2012 American Community Survey <//factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_1YR/DP02> Table DP02

39%

Percentage of opposite-sex, unmarried-partner couples in 2013 that lived with at least one biological child of either partner.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2013 <//www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/cps2013/tabUC3-all.xls> Table UC3

816,000

Number of unmarried grandparents who were responsible for most of the basic care of a coresident grandchild in 2012. Thirty percent of coresident grandparents responsible for their grandchildren were unmarried.
Source: 2012 American Community Survey
<//factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_1YR/B10057> Table B10057

Unmarried Couples

7 million

Number of unmarried-partner households in 2012. Of this number, 639,000 were same-sex households.
Source: 2012 American Community Survey
<//factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/12_1YR/B11009> Table B11009

Voters

39%

Percentage of voters in the 2012 presidential election who were unmarried, compared to 24 percent of voters in the 1972 presidential election.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2012
<//www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2012/tables.html> Table 9

39%

Percentage of voters in the 2010 November congressional election who were unmarried.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2010
<//www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2010/tables.html> Table 9

Education

32%

Percentage of unmarried people 25 and older in 2013 who had a high school diploma or equivalent as their highest level of attainment.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2013
<//www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2013/tables.html> Table 2

26%

Percentage of unmarried people 25 and older in 2013 with a bachelor's degree or more education.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2013
<//www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2013/tables.html> Table 2

The following is a list of observances typically covered by the Census Bureau’s Facts for Features series:

Black (African American) History Month (February)
Super Bowl
Valentine's Day (Feb. 14)
Women's History Month (March)
Irish-American Heritage Month (March)/
      St. Patrick's Day (March 17)
Earth Day (April 22)
Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (May)
Older Americans Month (May)
Mother's Day
Hurricane Season Begins (June 1)
Father's Day
The Fourth of July (July 4)
Anniversary of Americans With Disabilities Act (July 26)
Back to School (August)
Labor Day
Grandparents Day
Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15)
Unmarried and Single Americans Week
Halloween (Oct. 31)
American Indian/Alaska Native Heritage Month (November)
Veterans Day (Nov. 11)
Thanksgiving Day
The Holiday Season (December)

Editor’s note: The preceding data were collected from a variety of sources and may be subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Facts for Features are customarily released about two months before an observance in order to accommodate magazine production timelines. Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office: telephone: 301-763-3030; or e-mail: pio@census.gov.

Page Last Revised - December 16, 2021
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