Census: More Americans living alone

[ckramer]

For all its crowds, Manhattan may also be the country's loneliest metropolis. It has the highest percentage of single-person households of any county in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lured by a dizzying social scene and studio apartments, some 354,336 people were living alone in Manhattan at the time of the 2000 Census. An analysis of the data was published this month.


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Well, this just sounds like in the show Seinfeld, that everybody is living alone, with "friends" of course!

Is this healthy as a society?

[YouthInAsia]

1. I love living alone. I can sit around naked all damn day if I want. And

I have less of a chance of gettin the BIRD FLU (lol)

[marmar]

4. LOL...

I agree tho. I couldn't imagine having to live with someone. Plus, In BushAmerica, having a family is too freakin' expensive.

[YouthInAsia]

6. yeah, having to anwser to somone besides my dog would SUCK.

I lived with a guy and he lived here and when we had our final grand finale fight, I tossed all his S*** outside, changed the lock, and that was IT. No strings attached.

[smirkymonkey]

19. That would be my ideal - just me and a dog.

Most people are pretty annoying if you spend a lot of time w/ them in close quarters.

[cliss]

23. Not me.

My teenage son is moving to Sweden next month. He's going to stay there for a year (at least). I'm so lonely, I've been a crying, weeping mess for about 1 week.

When I think of being alone, I get absolutely panicky. I've got a little kitten at home, but that's not much.

[neuvocat]

2. It is not unhealthy.

In fact it is often better to do so than to be in the presence of often very dysfuntional people or groups.

[xchrom]

5. speak for your self.

i love new york -- and i love living alone.

and best is living alone in new york.
it's fantastic.

now i live in norcal -- and i still love living alone.

[neuvocat]

8. ???

Why did the subject of your post offer a counterpoint when you agreed with me instead?

[Terran]

32. I think it was that double negative in your heading

Somebody thought you wrote, "It's not healthy" and went from there. :hi:

[mike_c]

21. me too-- living alone in norcal, that is....

I like it.

[superconnected]

18. It was perfectly healthy for me.

I loved living alone. I have an 18yo cat and she lived with me when I lived alone - for over a decade. So I never considered it alone.

I stopped living alone 3 years ago when I took in my mother. That took getting used to. But it's okay now.

[SoCalDem]

3. Small apartments usually do not accomodate crowds of people

and there are not very many affordable apartments bog enough for more than one person :(

[Demobrat]

7. More people are living alone because

more people can. And if everybody who stayed in unhappy living situations for financial reasons was suddenly given the choice to live alone - the number would be much higher.

Living alone is a luxury not everyone who would like to can afford.

[VegasWolf]

9. I thought only FReepers lived alone! nt

[JitterbugPerfume]

10. I love living alone

I can stay up and read till 3am without anybody yelling "when are you coming to bed" I can sit around naked , I can stay on my computer all day if i want to, and I can have a bowl of cereal for supper and a roast beef sandwich for breakfat if I want to.

Living alone is the only way to go!

[JusticeForAll]

33. Are you coming to bed

The five most dreaded words of my non-single life.

THanks for the reminder.

[ikojo]

11. I lived alone until August of this year

Then I got a roommate so that I could get a larger place in a better part of town. I went from living in an efficiency (where I lived for 12.5 years) to a two bedroom apartment.

Having a roommate is not easy but it sure does help on expenses.

[smirkymonkey]

12. I would LOVE to live alone here!

Unfortunately, you need to be making at least 100k to have your own place in Manhattan (unless you are living in a rent controlled or stabilized apartment that you've been in for 30 years already.)

Every roommate I have ever had here has been bat-shit crazy. I could move to the outer boroughs or New Jersey, but then what's the point of even being in NYC at all? Besides, I hate commuting more than I hate living with someone else. At least I can walk to work.

[Delphinus]

13. I live alone by choice.

Don't want to be married - I'll take a lover, but he can't live with me. :9 Selfish, maybe, but I know me. I need my space.

[BiggJawn]

14. Sweety, is that you?

Sure sounds like her....
Me too.

My bicycles get jealous, they barely tolerate the fish!

[Demeter]

15. I Don't Live Alone By Choice

unless not wanting to cohabit with a psychopath is a choice.

Remember the joke: after 40, a woman has a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than marrying? While her chances of marrying a terorist are better than even.

[BiggJawn]

36. Must be an over-40 thing.

Sure, I got "baggage", but I've bounced off more than a few women who carry steamer trunks and belong to Hamas.

The bitterness of old age is no respecter of sex, IMO.

[BiggJawn]

16. Gee, they make this sound like it's a Bad Thing or sumpthin'...

I've tried the shacking up thing 3 times. 2 of them I married (and subsequently got kicked to the kerb by)

Just me and the fish now, and I rather LIKE it that way.

Except when the neighbours are fucking....

[superconnected]

17. I lived alone for over a decade

until my Grandmother died and my Mother needed a place to stay. Then I got a townhouse.

I don't mind now. I haven't done laundry once since she moved in 3 years ago. She does everything - cook, clean, laundry. I was dreading it, but it turned out nice.

[sweetheart]

20. done that for a long time

Living alone is fun, enjoyed it. Living with someone i love is
more complex. There is private space, public space and the real
joy of having a friend who gives a toss.

Whatever works for each person. When you get older, being alone all the
time can be not the greatest. There is a lot to be said for the support
and joy of a loving family around you. If its not loving then what's
the worth, but if it is, then living in whatever partnership works is
what is... and we are always alone facing death anyways. Perhaps the
problem is that people get out of touch with that relationship busy
with another person and what she/he thinks.

[happyslug]

22. And more people have deviant sex lives.....

Deviant, i.e. "different from the norm", in the case of sex the norm is sleeping with someone of the opposite sex, thus anyone who "Deviant" from that Norm is a Sexual Deviant. This includes senior citizens living alone or in nursing homes who are living alone(Yes, Grandma in the Nursing home is a Sexual "Deviant").

Findings like the fact more people are living alone reminds me of the above increase in "Deviant Sex Lives" of Americans. More a quirk of statistics than any real change.

Lets look at some causes for the "increase" in people living alone. Women tend to marry men a few years older than they are and women live longer than men, thus you have widows who are living 10-15 years AFTER THEIR HUSBAND'S Death. Each is an increase in "people living alone". This is probably the biggest reason for the increase in people living alone (added to by husband's who outlive their wives and do not re-marry or move in with someone of the opposite sex).

You also have a lot of people who are married but have to move away from their spouse do to their job. Technically BOTH spouses are living "Alone" even through both try to get together as much as possible (Especially on Weekends).

Let's not forget the Military. While the number of people in the Military has declined since the end of the Cold War, you are actually seeing an increase in deployments away from unit's home station, thus increasing the number of people "Living alone".

This study is further Skewed by using the very low base of the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1950s and 1960s Women having jobs were rare (only started to change in the late 1960s). You also had the lowest number of people over age 65 (do to the Baby bust of the 1890s do to the depression of the 1890s). This was added to by the fact most people in the military were draftees who had not yet married and thus these males and potential mates tended to live alone till the male ended his military duty (A lot of Females prior to the 1960s moved out of their parent's home during their teen years after dropping out of High School, not pregnant, just on their own, it is only with the 1960s did Women see Collage as a real option in their future as opposed to getting married and raising a family, the "Norm" in the 1950s).

Thus you have an increase over a very low base. Reminds me of recent report about the increase in the average age of first marriages. The study used 1960 as the base and since 1960 the average age of first marriage has constantly increased. When I first saw that study something rang a bell in my head and than I remember the census data they were using. I had first saw in in the early 1970s but the base was 1900 not 1960 and it showed a constant DECREASE in the average age of first marriages from 1900-1960 (that report ignored 1970 for it reversed the trend, just like the more recent report ignored data from 1900-1950 for it shows an average DECREASE).

Side-Note sometime in the early 1990s the average age of First marriages finally exceeded the average age in 1900, the average age is now above what it was in 1900 but the point I am trying to make is that if you select the "Right" base you can skew any study to make a point. In the Recent Case of First Marriages the base of 1960 showed an increase in age, when over a longer period it had decreased (and over an even longer period increase to beyond what it was when the data was first collected).

The same with this study of Increase number of people living alone, I suspect a product of picking the "Right Base" in addition to the above changes that have more to do with things beyond people's individual's choices and more to do with how the economy ha changed since the 1950s.

[HockeyMom]

25. Guess I qualify

Husband is working and living in another state 1,000 miles away. We are separated, but not legally. I live with my two daughters who are in their 20s. One is going to college and the other can't afford to live on her own (even WITH a roommate).

I suppose in generations gone by I would still be living with my husband and my daughters would be married and have their own households.

Welcome to 2005. This is not your Grandma's World.

[happyslug]

26. Yes, Not your Grandma, but maybe your Great Grandma's World

You had the same high level of out of wedlock births, people living together, and multiple generations living together during and prior to the Great Depression. WWII and the 1950s were a major sea-change in previous living arrangements. The problem is we are slowly returning to a social Structure that existed prior to 1930, not your Grandmother's time but Your Great Grandmother's time. All we need to make the change complete is to have Social Security, Welfare and Unemployment Insurance abolished and we would have returned to the 1920s (Without the moral advantage of Prohibition limiting the problems tied to Alcohol).

[llmart]

27. My husband and I did that twice for job reasons.......

and we never got along better than when he lived in another state. Now it's hard to get used to having to share space with him (kids are now grown) because he doesn't pull his weight of the work.

I'm glad the stigma of living alone is gone. Too many people used to marry because society frowned upon living alone, like it was some aberration or something.

[Rainscents]

24. I love living alone! I am selfish too when comes to wanting my space

and privacy. I been living alone for 13 years now and love every minutes of it!

[SquireJons]

28. Healthy? Depends on the person.

I've had it both ways, and still do.

I have lived by myself roughly a third of my adult life (I'm 44) and I've seen the pros and cons of such a life style. Currently, I have a little bit of everything. I am divorced (so I live alone), but I have a young son who is with me several days a week. I have a girlfriend, but she lives 220 miles away, so I don't get to see her very often. And I work a weekend / night shift job, so I don't really get to see many folks on a regular basis.

Most people would probably think that my life sucks, but I actually enjoy it quite a bit. It's not perfect, but nothing in life is.

If I get the chance to marry my girlfriend, I will do so in a skinny minute, and then lose all of my precious 'alone' time. But that's ok too, because I haven't tired of her in the 20 some years we've known each other, and I absolutely enjoy all the time we spend together. Hopefully, that will not change when I don't have the ability to hide away for days at a time.

But what works for me, would be torture for many others.

[HuckleB]

34. Indeed. Every individual is different.

But repeated studies clearly show that the majority of humans tend to be healthier when surrounded by a supportive social group or family.

[RebelOne]

29. I've always been a loner.

It's just me and my dog and that's the way I prefer.

[bdot]

30. I'm a loner. So what?

I would have no idea how to interact with other people. It would be way too stressful having another person even visiting my house much more living there.

[LatinoSocialist]

31. i'm TRYING to adjust to living alone

i lived with an ex for 4 years. Had to leave it to pursue my life a little more intently...but...I do miss the comforts of having her around. She was SUCH the great cook....I hope I made the right decision.

[ernstbass]

35. Just me and the dogs here

I love living alone but it took me two years to adjust - now I'm so set in my ways I can't imagine ever living w/ anyone