How will single America shape the future of retailing?

By George Anderson

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

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For the first time since the government began counting how many Americans were single and married, the number of people sans-spouses topped those with them.

According to two new reports, one by Yardeni Research and the other by CityLab and the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI), the percentage of the U.S. adult population that is single is either 50.2 percent or 51.2 percent. Yardeni Research used figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for its analysis while CityLab and MPI analyzed Census Data.

The shift is quite startling when you consider that only 37 percent of the population was identified as single when the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its first findings in 1976.

According to CityLab and MPI, there are 27 states where singles make up more than half the adult population. Louisiana and Rhode Island have the largest percentage of singles at 55.7 percent while Utah, at 43.7 percent, has the lowest.

Single people make up more than half of the adult population of 46 of the 51 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. New Orleans has the biggest percentage of singles at 58 percent, followed by Memphis (57.7 percent), Miami (56.1 percent), LA (55.8 percent) and Buffalo (55.1 percent).

Not surprisingly, college towns have the highest percentage of singles. At the top of the list is Gainesville, FL, home of the University of Florida. Ithaca, NY (Cornell and Ithaca College), College Station, TX (Texas A&M), Tallahassee, FL (Florida State and Florida A&M) and Lawrence, KS (University of Kansas) follow.

Edward Yardeni told Bloomberg News that the rise of singles has significant economic implications. Singles are more likely to rent than own homes. They also, generally speaking, have fewer expenses than married people with children.

One way singles are cutting down on expenses is to live at home well into their adult years.

Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology at New York University and author of "Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone," told PRI, "People are spending a big chunk of their lives — much of the 20s and even into their 30s, increasingly — becoming a grown up. They're investing their time in their job, they feel anxious about their career and they're having a very difficult time moving into that next stage of what we've traditionally thought of as grown-up life."