Singles Are the New Majority – What This Means for Your Product

The Signal You're Missing

Let’s skip the sociology lesson. Here’s what matters:

In 1990, 29% of U.S. adults aged 25–54 were unpartnered. By 2019, that number was 39% for men and 36% for women. Among 25–34-year-olds, just 43% of women and 34% of men lived with a spouse by 2022. In 1960, that number was above 80%.

This isn’t a blip. It’s a hard left turn in how adulthood works. The pandemic didn’t start it, but it made things worse — what researchers are calling a “dating recession” added 13.3 million more single people by 2022.

So if you’re still designing for a world of couples splitting rent and grocery lists, you’re building for a market that is shrinking.

The Data That Actually Matters

Yeah, the graph goes up. But here’s the point: unpartnered people don’t share bills. They don’t pass your app back and forth. They don’t have a backup.

Which means:

• CAC goes up. No partner-driven nudging.
• LTV drops. Everything gets more expensive when you’re on your own.
• Churn hits harder. There’s no “hey, have you checked this out?” from across the couch.

If you're not accounting for the real-world constraints of solo living, you're mispricing value — and missing a massive market.

Personally what bothers me when living alone:

• Cooking for one takes as much time as cooking for two or three, so I often go with a full meal plan delivery
• Netflix? Max? Disney+? I can't share the bills.
• Groceries, salad always comes in portions that are too big for one person — it just sits in my fridge and ends up rotting.

Loneliness Is a Product Input

The U.S. Surgeon General is calling it an epidemic. Loneliness isn’t just emotional — it’s economic. One in five U.S. adults reports daily loneliness. One in three feels it weekly. And it kills people faster than smoking.

Also: it changes how they buy. People fill emotional gaps with apps, services, pets, subscriptions. The market has responded:

• $12B+ mental wellness industry
• $50B+ pet economy
• $4B+ solo travel and experience services

Design for the emotional infrastructure that partnerships used to provide. You’re not just easing UX friction — you’re meeting a core psychological need.

Marriage Is Quietly Disappearing

Divorce rates are falling. But that’s because people aren’t getting married in the first place.

Only 44% of adults aged 25–34 were married by 2010. Forget white picket fences. People can’t afford a house, much less a joint checking account. Relationships aren’t gone — they’re just less official, less permanent, and less economically functional. This creates new economic behaviors:

• No legal co-decision-makers
• No joint assets
• Shorter commitment cycles — in love and in product usage

Your user is making more decisions without a sounding board. Your product better help them get it right.

The Real Profile of a Single User

The single 25–34-year-old today is:

• Earning less if male, despite working more
• More likely to have a degree if female, but still solo
• Less likely to own property
• More likely to live alone, or with parents (19% of men, 12% of women in 2022)

Also: men are now more likely to be unpartnered than women, which flips the dynamic from 30 years ago. There’s a gendered economy under this trend. Your users aren’t just single — they’re navigating inequality, instability, and silence. Alone.

What Real Products for Singles Look Like

Let’s get first-principles honest:

• The partner used to be the feature: split costs, share tasks, provide reminders, logins, motivation.
• That feature is gone. Your product is now the co-pilot.

What works:

• Personal finance that handles 1 income, 1 set of needs
• Healthcare with UX that doesn’t assume someone else will drive you to surgery
• AI that acts like an actual assistant — not just autocomplete
• Housing tools for renters who live alone or move often
• Mental health that integrates into daily life, not as an emergency fix but emotional scaffolding

Don’t build as if they have a partner filling in the blanks. They don’t.

Where to Build Next

There’s plenty of space. Here’s where the demand is loud:

Housing: Remote-native, co-living optional, lease-flexible, less square footage.

Aging: Tools for people aging without partners or kids. Solo retirement planning. End-of-life care logistics.

Social connection: Not performative. Persistent, low-effort connection

Work-life tooling: Productivity and wellness apps that don't assume a safety net at home.

Financial systems: For users who don’t have someone to “talk things over with.” Build default solo flows.

**Travel: hostels, one bed rooms, safety during travel solo, agencies organizing trips for single people.

**Restaurants: more flexible tables, not allowing 1-2 people sitting in a group-table.

This is the invisible market: people doing life without a backup. Design for them.

No, This Isn’t Just Culture. It’s Economics.

This isn’t about failed dating. It’s not about personal choices. It’s about macro conditions that have reshaped how adulthood functions.

People are living alone. Earning alone. Deciding alone. And yes, buying alone.

Most of our systems — tax policy, healthcare, product UX — still assume two people at the core. That assumption is now false.

In countries like Japan, Italy, or Poland (68% in age group 25–29), where a large share of young adults live with their parents well into their 20s or even 30s, governments have introduced generous social programs to fight negative demographic trends — including tax breaks, child benefits, housing subsidies, or paid parental leave.

In Poland, despite initiatives like the "500+" baby bonus program or housing subsidies for young families, birth rates continue to fall. Many young people migrate to large cities in search of better jobs, but there they face skyrocketing living costs and housing prices.

Most can’t afford to buy a flat, even with government help. Ironically, some of these housing programs — intended to make homeownership easier — ended up inflating demand, which caused apartment prices to increase by over 20% in just a few years.

As a result, more and more young adults delay starting families or opt out entirely. When asked why, they often point to economic uncertainty, high living costs, unstable job markets, lack of affordable childcare, and the desire for personal freedom and self-development.

The user is solo. The budget is tight. The attention is fragmented. The support network is DIY. But the demand? Massive.

Design for the user with no fallback — and they’ll reward you with loyalty no one else is earning.