A new study from Pew Research Center released Tuesday underscores the economic advantages of being married, especially as the share of single people in the U.S. has grown over the past three decades.
The flip side, of course, is that it’s harder to be single, researchers say, since the unpartnered population earns less and has less education. Unpartnered men, in particular, are less likely to be employed.
The share of the U.S. population not living with a romantic partner during prime working years has grown from 29% to 38% from 1990 to 2019. Around 28% of single people between the ages of 25 to 54 are living with their parents, compared to 2% for married or partnered couples. Additionally, the growth of the unpartnered population over almost 30 years has been sharper in men than women, according to the Pew study, which used decennial census and American Community Survey data.
Policymakers should take notice since the unpartnered population is generally economically disadvantaged and less healthy compared to married people or those living with a romantic partner, said Richard Fry, a senior economist at Pew. “When we look at their health outcomes, they are more likely to engage in risky behavior such as binge drinking. Single adults don’t live as long,” Fry said. “Single adults are an at-risk population.”
Bella DePaulo, a research psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, cautioned that this Pew report could further stigmatize the unpartnered population “if it is used as a way of telling a misleading story about those poor single people and what is supposedly wrong with them.”
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