Singlehood: Our Social Revolution

In 2017, when Hugh Mackay spoke of our social revolution, the only demographic study on single Australians apart from his work was The Demographics of Living Alone by David de Vaus and Lixia Qu in 2015.

Our ‘shrinking households’ and the rise of single people are the ‘global warming’ of demographics. Changes in the sizes and structures of our households are one of the most revealing indicators of our social revolution. —Hugh Mackay quoted in One: Valuing The Single Life, Clare Payne, 2018

Since then four scholarly publications on Australian singlehood have appeared. One: Valuing The Single Life by Clare Payne (MUP 2018), Lara McKenzie’s 2020 paper in the journal Anthropology in Action, Shutting Down Sex: COVID-19, Sex and the Transformation of Singledom. Also in 2020, Security in Old Age for Older Single Women Without Children by Myra Hamilton et al. And Households Shrink as More People Live Alone by Lixia Qu et al. in 2023.

Mapping the singlehood revolution itself is difficult due to the variety of statistical measures which countries employ to pinpoint their single populations. But current data on one-person households gives the best indication of the inexorable transformation in the way we live.

One-person Households Globally 2023—2024

• Americas: USA 30%, Canada 28.2%, Argentina, 22.75%, Chile 20.17%
• Scandinavia: Denmark 28.35%, Finland 25.8%, Sweden 24.2%, Norway 23.3%
• UK 30%, Ireland 23%, Russia 25.97%
• Europe: Germany 41%, Switzerland 37.3%, Italy 36.9%, Belgium 36%, Netherlands 31.98%, ‍‍
• Asia: Korea 35.5%, Japan 34%, China (2021) 25.4%, India 5.4% (7.4 million single women)

Currently, the UN expects one-person households to reach 35% globally by 2050. Add to this the 8% of single parent households measured in 2023, and it is possible single populations in many nations will be close to 50% by 2050.

Here in Australia 26% of our homes are one-person households. Add to this the 16% of families with one parent, and assuming they each live in one household, it is possible that 40% of Australians are single right now. The ABS anticipates up to 27% of all households will be one-person by 2041. Add to this the estimated 17.85% of single parent families, and we can expect almost 45% of Australians will be single in 2041. However, this is only our best guess. We need a better measuring tools.

What we do know about Australian singlehood is:

• 55% of those living alone are women, half of whom are 65 or older
• Roughly one in four Australian women of reproductive age today will not have children, and this decline is expected to continue
• Increasingly women who engage in Grey Divorce are not re-coupling
• Gen Z and Millennials are rewriting the coupling and family making script all-together

Additionally, Gen Z and Millennials are rewriting the coupling and family-making script altogether. Up to one in seven Gen Z Australians identify as LGBTQIA+. A 2023 survey of 1,000 Gen Z found that less young women than men want children, more young women than men identify as LGBTQIA+, and despite the right to same sex marriage, only 50% of LGBTQIA+ respondents wanted to marry, compared to 80% of non-LGBTQIA+ respondents.

Given what we know, Singlehood Australia expects that by 2041, the majority of single Australians will be women of diverse sexuality and gender identity, and most of those women will not have children.