How Many Adults Are Actually Single? The Census Numbers
The 'everyone is single now' narrative peaked in 2019. Pew's analysis of Census data shows the unpartnered share has ticked down — and where singles actually concentrate.
Quick Answer
Pew Research Center's analysis of Census Bureau data found 42% of US adults were unpartnered in 2023 — neither married nor cohabiting — down from 44% in 2019, the first decline after two decades of growth. Among adults 25 to 39, the prime dating years, 42% are unpartnered; that falls to 29% for ages 40 to 54. Women are slightly more likely to be unpartnered overall (44% vs. 40%), but under 40 the pattern reverses and men are more often single. The "singledom keeps rising" story was true through 2019 and isn't anymore.
The Peak That Already Happened
For most of the 2000s and 2010s, the share of American adults living without a romantic partner climbed steadily, and a whole genre of commentary grew up around it — the rise of the singles, the retreat from partnership, the loneliness epidemic. Pew Research Center's most recent analysis of American Community Survey data suggests that story peaked in 2019.
Between 2019 and 2023, the unpartnered share of adults fell from 44% to 42%. The married share rose from 50% to 51%. The share cohabiting with an unmarried partner rose from 6% to 7%. These are small moves, but they're the first reversal in the direction of the trend, and they align with the post-pandemic marriage rebound visible in CDC vital statistics: 2022 saw the most marriages in any year since 2019.
Where Singles Actually Concentrate: The Age Curve
The headline number hides a steep age gradient, and the age breakdown is the most useful part of the data for anyone dating:
| Age group | Share unpartnered (2023) |
|---|---|
| 18–24 | 86% |
| 25–39 | 42% |
| 40–54 | 29% |
| 55–64 | 32% |
| 65+ | 41% |
Two features stand out. First, the drop from 86% to 42% between the early twenties and the 25-to-39 window is the single largest partnering transition in the life course — most people who partner do so in that stretch. Second, the curve is U-shaped: unpartnered share bottoms out in the 40s at 29%, then climbs back to 41% past 65 as divorce and widowhood accumulate.
For the 30s dating pool specifically, the 42% figure is worth sitting with. Someone dating at 33 is not in a depleted market; roughly two in five of their age peers are unpartnered by the Census definition, and in a city like New York — which marries later than almost anywhere in the country, per the marriage-timing data — the local share runs higher.
The Gender Split Flips With Age
Overall, women are more likely to be unpartnered than men, 44% to 40%. That aggregate is driven almost entirely by the oldest cohorts, where women outlive their partners. Under 40, the pattern reverses: men are more likely than women to be unpartnered. The mechanism is the persistent tendency for women to partner with slightly older men, which shifts the effective dating-pool balance in each age band — a lot of the "where are all the available men in their 30s" and "where are all the available women in their 20s" frustration is this one demographic fact experienced from both sides.
Education, Race, and the Partnering Gap
The unpartnered share also varies sharply by education and race. Among adults 25 and older, 30% of college graduates are unpartnered versus 44% of those without a high school diploma — a gap consistent with a large body of research on the growing concentration of marriage among the more educated. By race, 61% of Black adults are unpartnered, compared with 45% of Hispanic adults, 38% of white adults, and 35% of Asian adults. These are structural patterns with deep roots in incarceration, economics, and labor markets, and they're a reminder that the "average" single adult is a statistical fiction; the experience of being single varies enormously by who and where you are.
What the Data Says About the Dating Market
The practical read is more optimistic than the singles-epidemic discourse of a few years ago. The unpartnered share is no longer growing; the prime partnering window of 25 to 39 still sees a majority of adults partnered by its end; and the marriage rebound after 2020 suggests the pandemic-era retreat was a pause, not a break. What the Census can't tell you is how any of these people are meeting — for that, the Stanford data on how couples actually meet is the companion piece. The short version: the people are there. The bottleneck is the meeting.
Sources:
- Share of US adults living without a romantic partner has ticked down in recent years — Pew Research Center, January 2025, analysis of Census Bureau American Community Survey data
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of US adults are single?
Per Pew Research Center's analysis of Census Bureau data, 42% of US adults were unpartnered in 2023 — neither married nor living with a romantic partner — down from 44% in 2019. That marks the first decline after roughly two decades of growth.
What percentage of people in their 30s are single?
Among adults 25 to 39, 42% were unpartnered in 2023, per Pew's Census analysis. The share drops to 29% for ages 40 to 54, then rises again to 32% for 55 to 64 and 41% for 65 and older as widowhood and divorce accumulate.
Are more men or women single?
Overall, more women: 44% of women versus 40% of men were unpartnered in 2023. But the pattern flips by age — under 40, men are more likely than women to be unpartnered, largely because women tend to partner with slightly older men.
Has the number of single adults stopped growing?
The share stopped growing and reversed slightly between 2019 and 2023. The unpartnered share fell from 44% to 42%, the married share rose from 50% to 51%, and the cohabiting share rose from 6% to 7% — the first such decline Pew has recorded since it began tracking.
Which single adults are most likely to be unpartnered?
Younger adults by far — 86% of 18-to-24-year-olds are unpartnered — along with Black adults (61%) and adults without a high school diploma (44%). College graduates are least likely to be unpartnered at 30%.
Related reading
Most Single Americans Aren't Looking to Date. Here's the Data
Pew found 57% of single adults aren't looking for a relationship or dates — and interest has been falling, especially among men. What that means for the people who are.
Living Together Before Marriage: What the Research Actually Found
Does cohabiting before marriage raise divorce risk? A Stanford analysis of 216,000 couple-years says the answer depends on when you look — and on who you lived with before.
The US Divorce Rate Is at a 50-Year Low. Here's the Actual Data
'Half of marriages end in divorce' is decades out of date. CDC vital statistics show divorce at its lowest rate in generations — and marriage declining too. The full 2000–2023 numbers.
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