An increasing number of Americans are choosing to live by themselves, according to the latest census figures. In fact, more people in the United States are living alone than any other time in history. According to a recent article in The New York Times:
"In prosperous American cities—Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis—40 percent or more of all households contain a single occupant. In Manhattan and in Washington, nearly one in two households is occupied by a single person." (Klinenberg, 2012, para 1)
Choosing to live alone is consistent with many ingrained American values in our culture. Chief among them: individualism, self reliance, and a burgeoning value for greater personal space. Material wealth has always been a defining characteristic of the American dream, but the value we place on accumulating wealth is not just to buy tangible things or enhance status. Material wealth affords Americans the ability to buy a room of one's own—a value that Virginia Woolf popularized way before the present day for women in particular.
Indeed, the cultural changes women have undergone are likely driving many of these emerging trends regarding the single life. Women are marrying later in life than any other time in history, and they are also becoming far more educated than any other time. With acce
ss to greater educationcomes the ability to acquire greater wealth and thus autonomy, and with that, new opportunities emerge.
Before we think this trend is specific to the states, however, it should be noted that though our numbers of lone living are on the rise, internationally this trend is even greater. Paris, Germany, Japan, Britain and Stockholm—just to name a few examples—have greater proportions of one person households in comparison to America (Klinenberg, 2012). Similarly, countries with the most rapidly growing economies also show the greatest growth in the single population (e.g. China, India, Brazil) (Klinenberg, 2012).
Has living alone become the ultimate status symbol? Living alone embodies a new type of freedom afforded to those with economic means—the freedom to choose when to socialize, the freedom to greater privacy and personal space, the freedom to be with oneself. Ultimately, as individuals we value choice, and the choice to live alone may be a defining one for our culture today.
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