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40M Americans Live Alone, 29% of households

57 points by helsinkiandrew

by JumpCrisscross

3 subcomments

When I was a twentysomething, I had roommates. This saved money on rent and bulk purchases (which let me spend more time having fun and save money) and provided a starter-kit social circle in a new city. It also honed conflict-resolution skills and ability to be civil. And when I got a partner, it made moving in together smoother.
Something I’ve noticed recently is many college graduates living alone. That’s fine. But it’s a weird default for early in one’s career. If I had one general piece of advice for anyone starting their career, it would be to seek out a living situation with roommates.
Side question: are more college students staying in solo dorms?

by gniv

3 subcomments

It's not a high number when compared to other first-world countries: https://statranker.org/population/top-10-countries-with-high...

by latexr

7 subcomments

If more people lived together with friends, that’d make a dent in both the housing and loneliness crises.

by xnx

2 subcomments

Part of the "housing crisis" is older Americans aging-in-place and using way more home than they need too. A widow/er might occupy the same suburban single family home in retirement that could house 5 people.

by gniv

0 subcomment

Incidentally, that newsletter has a lot of interesting charts.
https://www.apolloacademy.com/the-daily-spark/

0 subcomment

by pavlov

11 subcomments

Is it a bad thing? People's life choices are their own.
29% seems like a fairly neutral number.

by RobotToaster

0 subcomment

by silexia

1 subcomments

The best thing I ever did for my mental health was to start having children. Humans, like every other living creature, are hardwired by billions of years of evolution to reproduce.

by CalRobert

1 subcomments

by spwa4

0 subcomment

At least in my city, this is obviously the big reason behind the housing crisis.

by bradlys

0 subcomment

Why are people complaining about this? It's not even that high of an amount compared to several other developed nations. It's not a recent trend either. It's been going on for over 30 years.
No one here seems to care about the objective number (40 million) - they instead care about the relative amount (29%). If you look at the graph and track the percent, it's been at or over 25% since 1990. Having your share go from 25% to 29% in 35 years is not really that meaningful.
This isn't a new phenomenon in the US. The graph sucks because it hides the fact that the US population has been growing steadily.

0 subcomment

by b3ing

6 subcomments

Any causes? Is it that we are too independent and don’t like collectivism? A conspiracy might say it’s on purpose to have more people pay for things typically bought for a couple. Like everyone having their own house, cable bill, utility bill, water bill, …

by 0dayman

0 subcomment

by johnea

0 subcomment