Living Alone for Black and White Men and Women over Four Decades, 1980–2019

Oct 15, 2026

Analysis of living-alone trends across four decades uses 6.8 million individuals from 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses and the 2010 and 2019 American Community Surveys. Changes are assessed across five ten-year age groups for each gender and race group. Findings show limited overall shifts for most groups, except increased solo living among older men. Educational patterns vary by age and gender, with educational crossover among men but not women, and Blacks more likely than whites to live alone.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Background: Rising one-person households

Data and analytic approach

Age, education, gender, and race comparisons

Core findings on trends over time

Educational and demographic mechanisms

Living Alone for Black and White Men and Women over Four Decades, 1980–2019 hyun joon Park , matthew sheen, and Paula clark Using the data on 6.8 million individuals from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses and the 2010 and 2019 American Community Surveys, we document changes in living alone over the four decades across five ten-year age groups—twenty-five to thirtyour, thirty-five to fortyour, forty-five to fiftyour, fifty-five to sixtyour, and sixty-five to seventyour—for each gender and race group. The analysis reveals no substantial change in living alone for most groups over time, save older men showing an increase in the share of solo living. Four-year-college-educated men are more likely to live alone than less-educated counterparts at younger ages. The relationship is reversed at older ages. This educational crossover is not observed among women, who show educational convergence only at older ages. Blacks are more likely to live alone than whites, though the age and education patterns are similar. Keywords: living alone, educational crossover, life course, gender, race The number of one-person households in the United States has soared over the last six decades. In 1960, they totaled 6.9 million, accounting for 13 percent of all types of households. Six decades later, the number of one-person households has increased to thirtysix million, 28 percent of all households (U.S. Census Bureau 2022). Atthe same time, the media have portrayed the increased proportion of adults living alone as inevitable, warning the public of potentially negative consequences of living alone for individuals and society (Chamie 2021; Goldstein and Gebeloff 2022) . Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness and social isolation as an epidemic, which presumes detrimental impacts on both mental and physical health of individuals, prompting urgent public health concerns (Office of the Surgeon General 2023). The advisory report addressed the demographic trend of an increas- Hyunjoon Park is a Korea Foundation Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, United States. Matthew Sheen is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, United States. Paula Clark has recently earned her undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, United States. © 2025 Russell Sage Foundation. Park, Hyunjoon, Matthew Sheen, and Paula Clark. 2025.“Living Alone for Black and White Men and Women over Four Decades, 1980–2019.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 11(2): 26–45. [https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2025.11.2.02. The](https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2025.11.2.02. The) authors thank participants of the RSF journal conference, held June 8–9, 2023, for their comments and suggestions on the earlier version. They are grateful for Dr. Andrew Taeho Kim’s help for creating figures included in the paper. Direct correspondence to: Hyunjoon Park, at [hypark@sas.upenn.edu](hypark@sas.upenn.edu), Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, 19104, United States. Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. l i v i n g a l on e f o r b l ac k a n d w h i t e m e n a n d wom e n ov e r f ou r d e ca d e s 27 ing prevalence of one-person households as one of the factors contributing to heightened loneliness and isolation. However, it is often ignored that the increase in the share of one-person households has been modest during the last four decades since 1980 (only 5 percentage points, from 23 percent in 1980 to 28 percent in 2020) after amore substantial rise over the earlier two de cades. Moreover, the rise of one-person households does not necessarily mean an increase in the proportion of adults who live alone at the population le

FAQs

What data sources are used to study living alone from 1980 to 2019?

The analysis uses data on 6.8 million individuals from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses and the 2010 and 2019 American Community Surveys.

Do most gender and race groups show large changes in living alone over time?

No. The analysis finds no substantial change in living alone for most groups across the four decades, except that older men show an increase in the share of solo living.

How do education patterns differ for men versus women?

Among men, college education is linked to higher likelihood of living alone at younger ages, but the relationship reverses at older ages. Among women, the document reports educational convergence only at older ages and no observed educational crossover.

Oct 15, 2026

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