U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features: Unmarried and Single Americans Week Sept. 20-26, 2015

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Buckeye Singles Council started "National Singles Week" in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during the third full week of September (Sept. 20-26 in 2015) as "Unmarried and Single Americans Week," an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word "single" because they are parents, have partners or are widowed. In this edition of Facts for Features, unmarried people include those who were never married, widowed or divorced, unless otherwise noted.

Single Life

107 million
Number of unmarried people in America 18 and older in 2014. This group made up 45 percent of all U.S. residents 18 and older.                                          
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table A1
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014A.html

53%
Percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older who were women in 2014; 47 percent were men.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table A1
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014A.html

63%
Percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older in 2014 who had never been married. Another 24 percent were divorced, and 13 percent were widowed.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table A1
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014A.html

18 million
Number of unmarried U.S. residents 65 and older in 2014. These seniors made up 17 percent of all unmarried people 18 and older.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table A1
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014A.html

88
Number of unmarried men 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States in 2014.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table A1
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014A.html  

58 million
Number of households maintained by unmarried men and women in 2014. These households comprised 47 percent of households nationwide.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table A2
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014A.html

34 million
Number of people who lived alone in 2014. They comprised 28 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table HH-4
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/hh4.xls

Parenting

36%
Percentage of women 15 to 50 with a birth in the last 12 months, as of 2014, who were widowed, divorced or never married.
Source: 2013 American Community Survey, Table 13002
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_5YR_B13002&prodType=table

39%
Percentage of opposite-sex, unmarried-partner couples in 2014 that lived with at least one biological child of either partner.
Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2014, Table UC3
http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2014UC.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/cps2013/tabUC3-all.xls

806,811
Number of unmarried grandparents who were responsible for most of the basic care of a co-resident grandchild in 2013; 30 percent of coresident grandparents responsible for their grandchildren were unmarried.
Source: 2009-2013 American Community Survey, Table B10057
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_5YR_B10057&prodType=table

Unmarried Couples

7 million
Number of unmarried-partner households in 2013. Of this number, 573,530 were same-sex households.
Source: 2013 American Community Survey Table, B11009
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_5YR_B11009&prodType=table

Voters

39%
Percentage of voters in the 2012 presidential election who were unmarried, compared with 24 percent of voters in the 1972 presidential election.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2012, Table 9
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2012/tables.html

35%
Percentage of voters in the 2010 November congressional election who were unmarried.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of 2010, Table 9
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2010/tables.html

Education

87%
Percentage of unmarried people 25 and older in 2014 who had completed high school or more education.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2014, Table 2
http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2014/tables.html

27%
Percentage of unmarried people 25 and older in 2014 with a bachelor's degree or more education.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2014, Table 2
http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2014/tables.html

Following is a list of observances typically covered by the Census Bureau's Facts for Features series:

Editor's note: The preceding data were collected from a variety of sources and may be subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau's Public Information Office: telephone: 301-763-3030 or e-mail: [email protected].

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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