Unmarried and Single Americans By the Numbers: A Potential Electoral Powerhouse

September 25, 2015

This is National Unmarried and Single Americans Week and all this week we have been highlighting new U.S. Census Bureau data documenting the size and power of this fast-growing demographic group —focused particularly on unmarried women. We want to end this week with data derived from Census figures about unmarried women, their potential to make up a quarter of the national 2016 electorate and their power to decide next year’s elections.

51 PERCENT

Percentage of U.S. women eligible to vote in 2016 who will be unmarried, according to projections—the first time in U.S. history when the majority of vote-eligible U.S. women have been unmarried.

Data Sources:
1. Lake Research Partners/The Voter Participation Center: “Gearing Up for 2016: How Population and Electoral Trends among the RAE Inform the 2016 Cycle,” Slide 7

See our previous Unmarried and Single Americans Week posts:
Monday: Some Stunning Stats
Wednesday: Singlehood is Becoming the New Norm for American Households
Thursday: The Changing American Family

What We're Reading

U.S. Census: Unmarried and Single Americans Week

To commemorate Unmarried and Single Americans Week (September 17-23), the U.S. Census has produced a “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) of 2016 census data about unmarried Americans. Here are some of the highlights:

There are 110.6 unmarried people 18 or older in America, making up 45.2% of the U.S. adult population.
35.4 million Americans lived alone in 2016, representing 28.1% of all US households — up from 17.1% in 1970.
Despite unmarried people being 45.2% of the U.S. adult population, only 39.6% of voters in the 2016 presidential election were unmarried.

Read the rest of the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) on unmarried Americans.

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For the first time, millennials next year will pass baby boomers as the largest generation of Americans eligible to vote.

By Ronald Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst

July 25, 2017

(CNN)In 2018, the American electorate will cross a historic threshold that could reshape the political balance of power-or leave Democrats fuming in frustration at continued Republican dominance of Washington.

For the first time, millennials next year will pass baby boomers as the largest generation of Americans eligible to vote, according to the well-respected demographic forecasts from the States of Change project at the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group. That transition will end a remarkable four decades of dominance for the baby boomers, who have been the largest generation of eligible voters since 1978, when they surpassed what’s been popularly referred to as the Greatest Generation (or G.I. Generation) raised during the Depression. Read more here.

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Demographic change is slowly, but inevitably, moving Western states to the left.

By Reid Wilson

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Unmarried and Single Americans By the Numbers: A Potential Electoral Powerhouse

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