Singles Magazine -

Singles
The Magazine for
Today's Single

SINGLE STATS:

The Great Singledom -
Will the Real Single Please Stand Up!?

From Singles, The Magazine for Today's Single

Uncovering the truth about who singles are is akin to analyzing a demographic omelet having one egg only, yet with a blend of exotic ingredients to vary the recipe. We are as diverse as any group, and fit in anywhere. We belong to many different groups ourselves, and typically go to many different sections of the bookstore when looking for a new read. We span the political spectrum from left to right, the religious orientation from the devoted to cynical, the gender roles from macho to femme. We are gay and straight, and everything in the middle. We are Yuppies and Buppies and have children and goldfish. We are rich and poor, and live anywhere you go. We are like everyone else because we are everyone else. Isn't this common sense?

Therefore it must be true.

Everyone at various points in the their life is single. Most people switch a few times during their lifetime which anthropologists describe as serial polygamy. Better than serial killegamy, I suppose.

The story goes that Men tend to stick around for about seven years, 'til they get itchy, and the child they had can take out the garbage themselves. Then he goes off to roam the pastures looking for other fields to plow, while she gets stuck with the laundry. This abysmal state of affairs leaves both of the actors stranded in the great human drama, or anthropologically speaking, single,again. ..ergo, it is Typical for all of us to experience both sides of this coin. The single and couple experiences are like differing modes in music, with a certain magic and tenor, each wonderful on different levels and problematic in others.

Often a person in a couple feels their identity betrayed in the constant merging with an Other - those strange creatures. They love the companionship; intimacy and closeness yet fear.. Alien assimilation. When single often the reverse ensues.. yearning for intimacy or closeness with a significant other, at the same time treasuring a delicious sense of independence and freedom. One fears flying off alone and lonely - a kite drifting away with only a string. The member of a couple fears becoming an amorphous blob glommed hopelessly onto that Person, who, for the life of you, you can't understand out why he/she doesn't adore the pesto sauce as much as you do.

This is how I see who we are, and how we got here, yet circumstantial evidence is rarely sufficient to prove the truth...let us examine the evidence.

As facts largely speak for themselves, I will let them do the talking now regarding who we are.

According to the latest census:

There are more than 80 million unmarried adults in the United States.

Singles make up more than 40 percent of the adult population.

In many big cities, singles are the majority.

About 10 percent of people never marry.

Singles would rather rent than buy.

15 million older adults live alone.

13 out of 32 million adults with disabilities are single.

Only 9 out of 1000 people said, I Do, the lowest rate in 30 years.

In 1970, 3 percent of adults were currently divorced. In 1997, that rate tripled.

The number of woman non-virgins at marriage has tripled from only a generation ago. (is this relevant?..)

The desire to marry drops with age.

Half of all kids will be in a single parent family at some point.

Almost a third of all women consider having children out of wedlock acceptable.

Two thirds of all people find single parent families acceptable.

The unmarrieds vote Democratic mainly, the married - Republican.

A single parent heads one of three households.

Most single mothers earn less than fifteen thousand per year, compared to only 20 percent of single fathers.

73 percent of single parent kids will experience poverty before they are 18.

83% of singles believe in love at first sight according to www.singlefriendly.com, they offer more sobering facts as well:

20 percent or 66 million of all North America are single.

1.4 million singles are living in South Florida.

111 million Chinese men have no hope of finding wives. (I'd like to see how that survey was conducted..)

Almost half of all marriages end in divorce.

62% of single women under 34 own a car. (?)

Meanwhile, over at www.ru12.com we learn:

There are six times as many single mothers as single fathers, and that in 86 percent of single family households, it is the man who left.

Well, I guessed right mostly. Never imagined the poverty of single parenthood to be so severe though.

What to Do about That?

The people over at the www.cfcministry.com have a few ideas. They recommend spiritual support, emotional healing, and relationship guidance for the single in need of it as well as affordable childcare, adequate housing and a variety of professional services from the medical, legal, and financial specters. Education, job and time management skills are urged. Role models and mentors are needed.

Over at the American Association of Single People www.singlesrights..com a more legalistic campaign to aid singles and abolish singles discrimination is in action.

So does a clearer picture of who we are emerge now? It should. You should see now how powerful we are. That we are a major source of revenue earners and tax payers. That our numbers are growing. That we will influence the culture we live in, and that culture will continue to shift to meet more of our needs. As a greater awareness of the Great Singledom emerges, our voices will have a more potent impact. The stigma and guilt will cease with the shift. Your Aunt Agnes will stop trying to hook you up with the K-Mart manager up the street, because something is better than nothing. The acceptance of a quality single life will grow. We will even come to be admired and envied.

But in case you're a woman still looking for that special someone, you might note that Jacksonville, North Carolina.. Killeen - Temple, Texas.. and Fayetteville, North Carolina, have the highest ratio of available men to women.