US: For the first time, single adults outnumber couples with children as the most common type of household in the US, according to new figures from the 2000 census. In 1990, couples with children were the most prevalent family type, followed by singles, childless couples and single parents.
The report, based on new tabulations of the 2000 and 1990 tallies, found solo households grew 21 per cent over the decade, while the next largest category, married couples without children, grew by only 11 per cent.
As a result, couples with children - married or unmarried - now make up 31.3 per cent of all homes.
Individuals make up 31.6 per cent.
The extent of the shift was no surprise to San Francisco author Sasha Cagen, who wrote Quirkyalone: A Manifesto for Uncompromising Romantics, which brought her broad notoriety as a prophet of the voluntarily single.
"For people like me," she said, "living alone is the big step into adulthood. Forty years ago, people went directly from their parents' home to a marital home, with maybe a brief stopover of living with a roommate."
No more. Michael Carline, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders, said unmarried people "are probably not just thinking of it as a transitional arrangement. That makes them more likely to buy a house."
For builders, that means a bigger market for homes with less privacy, fewer rooms and reduced square footage, but "more jacuzzis".
"They are not worried about school district or space, so they put a higher priority to being close in. That's been a factor in boosting demand for urban or close-in suburban housing."
Thomas Coleman, executive director of information service Unmarried America, said the increase in singlehood was showing up in consumer goods. As evidence, he pointed to the Bambino watermelon, a cantaloupe-sized melon first marketed in 2004, and to an increase in the availability of individual-serving meals in shops.
The new analysis shows 15 million households in which there were family members - children or parents, for example - did not have a partner present. The number of households reporting an unmarried partner rose 72 per cent between 1990 and 2000.
Though committed partnership is still more popular than the single life, an analysis of long-term trends by Unmarried America shows that living alone has staged a long, gradual climb since at least 1960, when only 13 per cent of American households had just one member.
Ms Cagen said the change was partly economic. As Americans worked more, she said, "people don't have time to meet a significant other or even just friends. And finding someone to date becomes a job too, so we have speed dating and online dating."