How common is living alone in the US?

29 comments

1. I have never lived alone. I could have, briefly, but I liked my roommate and also I like having money.

2. Depends where you live (just like in the UK). If you’re in a major, expensive city, roommates are much more common than if you’re in an inexpensive area.

3. High cost of living cities in the US are similar, it’s common there for people to have roommates or live with a SO.

4. I lived alone my entire adult life, post-college until my wife and I shacked up. It’s very common outside of high CoL areas.

   Also I can’t believe software developers in London only make £50k, that’s insane.

5. I’ve never lived alone, and I’m 47. I have never been able to afford it. Now, I could probably afford it, but I am married so it’s a non-issue.

   Lived with parents until I was 17 and they kicked me out (once I graduated from school they determined I was no longer their responsibility).

   Lived with roommates until I moved in with my boyfriend at 19.

   Lived with boyfriend until we got married, and we’re together today, 27 1/2 years later.

   The first time I made enough money that I could probably live on my own if I were not married was in the last 5 years.

6. In big, career-driven cities like New York, Los Angeles, or DC, it is more or less the same as what you describe for London (you really know you’ve “made it” when you can afford to live by yourself *and* do more than just survive). It’s somewhat less common in smaller, less competitive cities, but still common for people immediately out of school.

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8. I lived alone in Washington, DC in my twenties. It was easily affordable for me, although I did have to have someone co-sign the lease because my income was mostly cash. I got roommates later but that was for social reasons, not financial.

   Before we lived together, my partner lived alone in Los Angeles and then Arlington, VA.

9. I never lived alone until I became a widower at 38. I have been alone for 2 years now.

10. It isn’t uncommon.

    A lot of younger people have roommates. A lot of other people live with family.

11. I live alone (almost 35). Lived with a friend for about 2 years after college before I bought a $125k house. My sister lived with me for a few years, but I’ve been living alone for about 6 years now.

12. It depends on where you are. If the cost of living is higher compared to average wages, you’re more likely to have more people living with roommates. If not, living alone might be more common.

13. I’ve never lived alone. I went from my parents house to a college dorm with a roommate, then a college apartment with the same roommate, and now an apartment with my boyfriend.

14. Lived alone from 22-30 in a low COL area. Fairly common in my experience but I also did whatever I could to avoid having roommates.

15. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/percentage-of-americans-living-alone-by-age

    More Americans can afford to live alone today than every before. However it’s still a relatively small percentage of our population.

    So few Americans are now getting married by 25, so “roomates with a spouse” has shrank as a living condition by nearly 30%. Some of these people are able to afford to live alone, but most instead are living with their parents instead. This is also much higher today because the current middle aged generation bought the largest houses ever in American history from 1990 to 2015. They have spare rooms to offer to their children to help them get ahead in life.

16. People in big cities tend to have roommates in their 20s. As people approach their 30s, it becomes less common since people are more likely to be married/earning more/unwilling to live with roommates.

17. Currently living alone. It’s not half my salary, but it’s more than I’d like. It was partially an “I don’t want roommates” decision, but it was also probably the most economically responsible decision too. I needed a new place a little over a year ago, renting a place was rediculously expensive, renting a room also wasn’t cheap. The mortgage payment on buying a small home was only a little more than a lot of rooms were monthly, and much cheaper than renting a place of comparable size.

    So I bought a house.
    Considering it’s estimated to be worth 40k more than I bought it for, that seems to be the right decision financially, even if that does stretch my monthly budget.

18. I lived with roommates up until 2019. Currently live alone and don’t plan on living with anyone else unless it’s a long term relationship/marriage.

    Edited to add: I’m in Washington DC. I lived in a row house with roommates from 2015-2019, then took over the studio unit on the second floor of the same house. The place was a dump but super cheap.

    I now live in a new apt building. It’s significantly more in rent, but not as bad as it could be. And much nicer.

19. Fairly uncommon.

    It does vary from region to region but generally people are going to have roommates either for financial or for social reasons.

20. I live alone on the outskirts of a big city, basically country life but shopping, restaurants, entertainment venues within 10 minutes. I spend about a quarter of my salary on rent. It’s pretty affordable.

21. After college and until my career really got going I always had roommates. All of my friends and coworkers around the same stage in life did too.

    As we all got older and more established, some moved out on their own, and a lot moved in with partners.

    I’ve lived alone since I was about 30, unless you count the furry good for nothing mooch snoozing on the couch next to me. Lazy bum eats treats all day and refuses to work on anything except chewing on toys and the occasional piece of luggage.

22. I rented my own extremely sketchy studio for $400 a month when I got out of college, but anything better I definitely would have needed roommates (this was also more than a decade ago). It was an area with a low cost of living as well.

23. Of my 61 years I’ve lived about a total 18 years alone at different times. The last time was almost 20 years ago.

24. In HCOL cities like NYC, LA, and SF, it’s common to have roommates if you’re single. Otherwise, unless you make good money, it’s financially difficult to live alone as a single person.

25. Pretty common to have roommates in the US until you can either afford to buy a home or move into a 1 bedroom apartment.

    Or more common until you find a significant other to share living expenses with.

    It’s a lot easier in cities like Buffalo where the median rent is $1,000 and the median home costs $240,000 compared to the rest of the nation.

26. When I lived in Los Angeles, people living alone was pretty much unheard of unless you are in a high paying career. Most live with roommates or at home with their parents.

    Personally I lived alone in LA for 2 years before I broke down and got a roommate, as I was tired of paying $2300 for rent, and I was on a six figure salary.

27. In most areas of the country young professionals can easily afford to live alone. Basically everywhere except for the the areas of the US that are especially expensive to live such as California, Hawaii, NYC, etc. Even in those areas, many can afford to once they get a little more experience and a raise or two.

    Keep in mind, I’m talking about young professionals since you were talking about Software Devs. What I said above certainly doesn’t apply to someone working retail or waiting tables.

    Also, your salaries for things like software developers in the UK and the rest of Europe are super low compared to the US.

    Looking at a quick calculator your £50k is roughly equal to $55K. My first software Developer job in 2006 paid $60K then, which is about $89K now with inflation. And that was in a fairly low cost of living area of the Midwest.

28. Pretty common, increasingly so after college. People either move in with their spouse/SO or get tired of dealing with someone else’s shit

29. £50,000 salaries for software developers? Yikes… I knew that salaries in Europe for professional jobs are definitely a lot lower than here in America, but I thought it was more like 2.5× to 3× lower, not like 5× (and more) lower. It can take a while to get to this level, but salaries easily surpass $200,000 in software engineering in America, and some at the top end make $500,000 or more. Yes, a lot of that is compensation from stock, but still. Even the average software engineer in America is over $100,000, at least after several years into your career.

    And it sucks bigtime for you guys now that the pound is only about 10% higher than the dollar.

    Anyway, yes, lots of folks living in NYC do have roommates. I live in NYC and I’m fortunate to be in a financial position where I can afford to live alone, and it’s great. I lived with roommates until age 32 (back when I lived in Philadelphia), and I’ve been on my own for the last 3+ years.