Mapping UK’s single households
Last Update : October 9, 2017
The UK has always been a modern and advanced country within Europe. Dating websites are a very popular tool for a great number of British singles that have been able to adapt technology into their lifestyle to make the most of their spare time.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 18.7 million families in 2015 in the UK: 7.7 million people were living alone.
Are UK singles increasing?
Lone parents and single women
Lone parents households have increased since 1996 from 1.6 million to 1.9 million in 2005. According to the study, lone parents with dependent children represented 25% of all families with dependent children in 2015. An increase that can actually be seen in the number of single parents that are finding in online dating the perfect way to be proactive in love whilst being a parent.
It is interesting to note that single women represented the majority as they accounted for 90% of lone parents with dependent children whilst men just accounted for 10%.
A trend that is starting to show an important increase of single mothers using dating websites to try to alternate their parental responsibilities with their dating life.
Single Women are taking more and more control of their lives. According to the ONS, women are more likely to take the main caring responsibilities for any children when relationships break down and they are therefore becoming very keen to use dating websites to help them develop their dating lives.
A typology of Solo living in the UK
In general, of the 7.7 million people in UK households that lived alone in 2015, 4.1 million were aged 16 to 64 years old of which 58% of them were male.
According to another study titled « The demography of living alone in mid life », the increase of single households has been greatest among middle-aged men.
« There is a great heterogeneity in the routes into solo-living and it is unclear to which extent living alone is a result of choice or constraint, the postponement of partnership formation or of a partnership dissolution ».
The studies further the research stating that at age 35 to 44, one third of men living alone have at least one non-residential child in contrast with one-fifth of women being in the same situation.
Marriage trends in the UK
According to another study from the ONS, there were 240,854 marriages in 2013 which was a decrease of 8.6% compared with 2012.
Regarding average ages for marriage, the ONS stated that average men were marrying at 36.7 years old whilst average women at 34.5 years old.
Overall, the ONS states a decrease in marriage which would have probably be a consequence of factors such as financial constraints, changes in employment and related lifestyles changes.