Unmarried Adults

In the United States, 27% of adults ages 60 and older live alone, compared with 16% of adults in the 130 countries and territories studied.

Globally, women are younger than their male partners. They also are more likely to age alone and to live in single-parent households.

Almost a quarter of U.S. children under 18 live with one parent and no other adults, more than three times the share of children around the world who do so.

As more U.S. adults are delaying marriage – or forgoing it altogether – the share who have ever lived with an unmarried partner has been on the rise.

The share of U.S. children living with an unmarried parent has more than doubled since 1968, jumping from 13% to 32% in 2017.

One-in-four parents living with a child in the United States today are unmarried, up from 7% in 1968. A growing share of unmarried parents are cohabiting partners.

The U.S. has more foreign students enrolled in its colleges and universities than any other country in the world. Explore data about foreign students in the U.S. higher education system.

In the past 10 years, the share of U.S. adults living without a spouse or partner has climbed to 42%, up from 39% in 2007.

Long-term growth in total U.S. births has been driven by the foreign born, who accounted for 23% of all babies born in 2014.

In 2014, 40% of births were to unmarried mothers, a slight decline from the 41% share that had held steady since 2008. Although the single percentage point drop in 2014 was small, it was only the third one-year dip in this measure since the end of World War II.