Share of U.S. Adults Living Without a Romantic Partner Has Ticked Down in Recent Years

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After rising for about 20 years, the share of U.S. adults who are not living with a spouse or romantic partner has modestly declined since 2019. In 2023, 42% of adults were unpartnered, down from 44% in 2019, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.

The share of adults who were married increased from 50% to 51% from 2019 to 2023. The share of adults cohabiting with an unmarried partner also increased, from 6% to 7%.

The decline since 2019 in the share of adults who are unpartnered has occurred across all age groups.

However, certain demographic groups are more likely than others to be unpartnered, as of 2023:

Gender: Women are more likely than men to be unpartnered (44% vs. 40%).

Age: 86% of adults 18 to 24 are unpartnered – far more than among 25- to 39-year-olds (42%), 40- to 54-year-olds (29%), 55- to 64-year-olds (32%) or those 65 and older (41%).

Gender and age: Men younger than 40 are more likely than women in this age group to be unpartnered. But among those 40 and older, women are more likely to be unpartnered. For example, 51% of women 65 and older are unpartnered, compared with only 29% of men in the same age group.

Race and ethnicity: 61% of Black adults are unpartnered, compared with 45% of Hispanic adults, 38% of White adults and 35% of Asian adults.

Nativity: 44% of U.S.-born adults and 33% of foreign-born adults are unpartnered.

Education: 44% of adults ages 25 and older without a high school diploma are unpartnered, whereas 30% of those with at least a bachelor’s degree are.

4-in-10 recent Latino immigrant adults have never been married