A set of surveys about single people in the US. If you want the full dataset, they have a PDF with that. There's also the methodology here. A similar article by them (which includes some of the...
A set of surveys about single people in the US. If you want the full dataset, they have a PDF with that. There's also the methodology here.
While about three-in-ten U.S. adults (31%) say they are single – that is, not married, living with a partner or in a committed romantic relationship – that share varies widely across demographic groups. The youngest and oldest Americans are the most likely to be single – 41% of those ages 18 to 29 and 36% of those 65 and older say they are single, compared with 23% of those 30 to 49 and 28% of those 50 to 64.
These age differences bely huge differences by gender. Among men, those younger than 30 are by far the most likely to be single: About half of men in this age group (51%) are single, compared with only 27% of those ages 30 to 49 and 50 to 64 and 21% of men 65 and older. Women, by contrast, are by far most likely to be single later in life – roughly half of women ages 65 and older are unpartnered (49%), while those ages 30 to 49 are the least likely to be single (19%). Roughly three-in-ten women ages 18 to 29 (32%) and 50 to 64 (29%) are single.
Half of singles say they are not currently looking for a relationship or dates, while about a quarter say they are looking for either a committed romantic relationship or casual dates (26%), and smaller shares say they are looking only for a committed romantic relationship (14%) or only for casual dates (10%). Whether people are looking to date or not can be explained, in part, by gender, age and past relationships – factors which are inextricably linked, but all have an impact.
Singles who aren’t looking to date cite more important priorities and enjoying the single life as reasons for not dating
Among those who aren’t looking for a relationship or dates right now (half of all singles), two reasons stand out: that they have more important priorities right now and that they just like being single. These are cited as major reasons why they are not looking by 47% and 44% of non-daters, respectively.
Men and women see eye to eye on almost all these reasons for not looking to date. The one exception is that male non-daters are about twice as likely as female non-daters to say that feeling like no one would be interested in dating them is a major reason they’re not looking to date (26% of men say this compared with 12% of women).
A majority (57%) of women – and 35% of men – say they have experienced some kind of harassing behavior from someone they were dating or had been on a date with. Women are much more likely than men to say they have been pressured for sex (42% vs. 19%) or have been touched in a way that made them feel uncomfortable (35% vs. 9%). While the gender gap is smaller, women are also more likely than men to say someone they have been on a date with sent them unwanted sexually explicit images or spread rumors about their sexual history.
A handful of questions I have are:
According to that fact sheet, 30% of women under 30 are single as opposed to 50% of men, and both sexes have the same interest in dating until around their 40s. How do you think should this be interpreted?
Why is the amount of men who have stopped dating out of a perception of undesirability twice as high as the amount of women?
I think one of the reasons black people are more often single because in the eyes of society, they are often portrayed as undesirable. Another might be because they have higher rates of being in...
I think one of the reasons black people are more often single because in the eyes of society, they are often portrayed as undesirable. Another might be because they have higher rates of being in impoverished areas, where stable relationships may not be as common.
How do you interpret the 20% difference between single men and women? The 'natural'/implied reaction to me is to interpret this as "2 out of 5 single men in their 20s have kind of become surplus"...
How do you interpret the 20% difference between single men and women? The 'natural'/implied reaction to me is to interpret this as "2 out of 5 single men in their 20s have kind of become surplus" and then figure out the reason why. (Immediate guess being all the women who say they have poor experiences dating.)
A set of surveys about single people in the US. If you want the full dataset, they have a PDF with that. There's also the methodology here.
A similar article by them (which includes some of the same statistics) is this one: takeaways on Americans’ views of and experiences with dating and relationships. A good quote from that article is:
A handful of questions I have are:
According to that fact sheet, 30% of women under 30 are single as opposed to 50% of men, and both sexes have the same interest in dating until around their 40s. How do you think should this be interpreted?
Why is the amount of men who have stopped dating out of a perception of undesirability twice as high as the amount of women?
Why are black people more often single?
How surprised are you ("you" being Americans who have tried to date at some point) at these numbers?
I think one of the reasons black people are more often single because in the eyes of society, they are often portrayed as undesirable. Another might be because they have higher rates of being in impoverished areas, where stable relationships may not be as common.
None of these stats really surprise me at all
How do you interpret the 20% difference between single men and women? The 'natural'/implied reaction to me is to interpret this as "2 out of 5 single men in their 20s have kind of become surplus" and then figure out the reason why. (Immediate guess being all the women who say they have poor experiences dating.)