Stat Rat

During the course of a Biola education, it is not uncommon to, from time to time, ask yourself this question -- "Will I die single?"

I took this query to an expert who could handle it -- a.k.a. the nifty new Yahoo Answers feature. After a few lame answers, I got some fascinating, albeit distressing, stats from the Census Bureau.

Apparently the answer is a "quite likely..."

Currently it is 49.5% of Americans ARE married. Here are some stats on the ones that are unmarried...

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.
86 Number of unmarried men age 15 and over for every 100 unmarried women in the United States.
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.