Singleton (lifestyle)

A singleton, in the sociological sense popularized alongside the Bridget Jones novels and films, is a person living alone in a single person household, especially one who actively prefers that lifestyle rather than living alone only by circumstance. The sociologist Eric Klinenberg has observed that large numbers of people living alone were essentially unknown before the 1950s, but the arrangement has since become a defining feature of modern life; by the United Nations' own estimate, single person households made up about 28 percent of the world's households in 2018 and are projected to reach 35 percent by 2050, with more than 100 million additional people worldwide adopting solo living between the mid 2010s and mid 2020s. Economic independence, especially women's ability to work, own property and initiate divorce, communication technologies that keep people connected without cohabiting, and rising wealth and education, particularly among university educated women who increasingly outnumber similarly educated men, all help drive the trend, which is strongest in wealthier nations that place a high value on privacy and individual autonomy.