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About 1 of 6 Celebrating National Singles Week Are
65 Or Older
Sept. 19, 2004 Today marks the start of Unmarried
and Single Americans Week. When we hear the word singles, what most
often comes to mind are the swinging young people and we may fail to
consider that 15 percent of all unmarried American adults are age 65 or
older.
National Singles Week was started by the Buckeye
Singles Council in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and
recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now
widely observed during Sept. 19-25 as Unmarried and Single Americans
Week, an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify
with the word single because they are parents, have partners or are
widowed.
Here are some interesting facts from the Census
Bureau and we start with those about senior citizens first.
14.5 million
Number of unmarried and single Americans age 65 and over. These older
Americans comprise 15 percent of all unmarried and single people.
683,000
Number of unmarried grandparents who are responsible for caring for
their grandchildren. These grandparents comprise nearly 1-in-3 unmarried
grandparents.
Singleness
95.7 million
Number of unmarried and single Americans. This group comprises 43
percent of all U.S. residents age 15 and over.
54%
Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who are women.
63%
Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who have never been
married. Another 23 percent are divorced, and 14 percent are widowed.
50%
Percentage of adults in New York who are unmarried, the highest rate of
any state.
27%
Percentage of formerly married people (widowed, separated or divorced)
in Gary, Ind.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Clearwater, St. Petersburg and
Hollywood, Fla. These cities are among cities of 100,000 or more
residents with the highest rates of formerly married people.
86
Number of unmarried men age 15 and over for every 100 unmarried women in
the United States.
114
Number of unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women in Alaska, the
highest ratio of men to women among all states.
118
Number of unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women in Paradise, Nev.,
an unincorporated suburb of Las Vegas. This is one of the highest ratios
of any place with 100,000 or more people. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Tempe,
Ariz.; and Sunnyvale and Santa Ana, Calif., follow.
52.6 million
Number of households maintained by unmarried men and women. These
households comprise 48 percent of households nationwide.
28.8 million
Number of people who live alone. These one-person households comprise 26
percent of all U.S. households.
Parenting
33%
Percentage of births in 2002 to unmarried women. The rate varies from 89
percent for unmarried teenagers ages 15 to 19 to 12 percent for
unmarried women ages 30 to 44.
12.2 million
Number of single parents: 10 million single mothers and 2.2 million
single fathers.
43%
Percentage of opposite-sex, unmarried partner households that include
children.
Unmarried Couples
5.5 million
Number of unmarried-partner households in 2000. These households consist
of 4.9 million opposite-sex partners and about 600,000 partners of the
same sex. This is up from 3.2 million in 1990.
39 years old and 37 years old
Average ages of unmarried male and female partners, respectively, in
Florida oldest of any state.
8.1%
Percentage of households in Paterson, N.J., that are opposite-sex,
unmarried-partner households. Paterson; Manchester, N.H.; and Rochester,
N.Y., had the highest rates of this type of household in the country
among cities with 100,000 or more people. Cities with the highest
percentage of same-sex, unmarried partner households are San Francisco
(2.7 percent), Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (2.1 percent); and Seattle, Wash.
(1.9 percent).
Voters
34%
Percentage of voters in the 2000 presidential election who were
unmarried. Those who were widowed (59 percent), divorced (54 percent)
and never-married (44 percent) voted at lower rates than married people
(67 percent).
Education
85%
Percentage of never-married people age 25 and over who are high-school
graduates; this relatively high level of high school completion reflects
this groups relatively young age. Conversely, the low level of
high-school completions (67 percent) among widowed people is in part
attributable to this groups older age.
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
