“National Singles Week” was started by the Buckeye Singles Council in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during the third full week of September (Sept. 18-24 in 2005) as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed.

Singleness
100 million
Number of unmarried and single Americans. This group comprises 44 percent of all U.S. residents age 15 and over.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

53%
Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who are women.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

64%
Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who have never been married. Another 22 percent are divorced, and 14 percent are widowed.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

14.9 million
Number of unmarried and single Americans age 65 and over. These older Americans comprise 15 percent of all unmarried and single people.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

87
Number of unmarried men age 15 and over for every 100 unmarried women in the United States.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

49 million
Number of households maintained by unmarried men or women. These households comprise 44 percent of households nationwide.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

Parenting
33%
Percentage of births in 2002 to unmarried women.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/fertility/001491.html>

12.4 million
Number of single parents living with their children. Of these, 10.1 million are single mothers.
<http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/tabFM-2.pdf>

41%
Percentage of opposite-sex, unmarried-partner households that include children.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

680,000
Number of unmarried grandparents who are responsible for caring for their grandchildren. These grandparents comprise nearly 3-in-10 grandparents who are responsible for their grandchildren.
<http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=ACS&_lang=en&_ts=101211465067>

Unmarried Couples
4.6 million
Number of unmarried-partner households. These households consist of a householder living with someone of the opposite sex who was identified as their unmarried partner.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/003118.html>

Voters
36%
Percentage of voters in the 2004 presidential election who were unmarried.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/voting/004986.html>

Education
82%
Percentage of unmarried people age 25 or older who are high-school graduates.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/004214.html>

23%
Percentage of unmarried people age 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree or more education.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/004214.html>