The rise of singlehood could impact everything from housing to taxes

For Chloe bow down, beingness bingle is the only if selection that makes sense. 

"I feel better and happier than I've ever been," she said. 

The 33-year-old content creator says choosing to remain single isn't just a way of life, or a way to practise self-care, it's a path she believes more people would take if they knew how much happier they could be.

"For so long we've been told other things like how to be on a date night, how to impress him, it was never focused on how to be happy by ourselves, we were never taught how to be alone," she said. 

Bow's work is largely about the freedom of remaining single and she says there's a big community of women connecting with it. 

She's far from alone. 

The rate of single people has been on the rise across the globe for decades and according to data published earlier this year by The Economist, there is an estimated minimum of 100 million more single people in the world than just a decade ago, had singlehood rates remained the same. 

"This is a huge figure," said Sue-Lin Wong, the Singapore correspondent for The Economist.

Wong, who was not part of that research, points to several factors she believes are contributing to this growth — a drop in coupling during the pandemic, data that points to "rapidly falling marriage rates" across many Asian countries and "rapidly changing cultural norms."

"People, especially women, are prioritizing their education, careers and personal growth over settling down which means they are marrying later." 

For Canada, it's unclear exactly how many singles there are, but according to Statistics Canada the number of single-person households more than doubled between 1981 and 2021 to 4.4 million — a record high of 15 per cent of people aged 15 years and older. 

Singlehood is "absolutely" on the rise, says Geoff MacDonald, a professor of psychology who studies the well-being of singles at the University of Toronto.  

"And since 2021 the conversation and the visibility of singles has also hugely increased."

There has also been a cultural shift, he says, in that singlehood is "not universally perceived as being something that is a bad thing or something uncomfortable, as it once was."

That said, last year Canada was also ranked by Statistics Canada as an "ultra-low" fertility country, meaning only 1.5 children were born per woman — well below the replacement rate of 2.1. And in January, it said that changing roles of women was partially to play for the country's falling fertility rate.

Economists say increasing singledom and decreasing fertility across the country can have a big implications. 

As women's roles and lives have continued to expand over the decades into increasingly higher education and well-paying jobs, experts say traditional expectations are also deteriorating. 

"As more women become financially independent, the appeal of marriage really drops off, especially if it means that they will have to quit their well-paid, fulfilling jobs, to stay at home, look after their in-laws, look after their husband, raise children, and do the vast majority of housework," Wong said. 

MacDonald says data from North America suggests similar trends. 

There is "lots of research on the unbalanced division of labour in heterosexual relationships and women are aware they are taking on more work," he said. 

"Women are more conscious than they have been in the past of some of the trade-offs of getting into heterosexual relationships including the imbalance of labour present in those types of relationships. It may need to be worth their time to get into a relationship." 

MacDonald says ongoing research at the lab — sometimes referred to as "the singles lab" — also says more men believe that women are setting "the bar too high" when looking for a partner, and while some men are trying to meet that bar, others are "choosing to just get out of the market altogether." 

Justin Frost, 34, is single and agrees that female expectations have become too much.

"It just feels like expectations and that bar is a bit out of reach. What women seem to be expecting today is someone who is rich and has it all figured out," he said.

Frost also points to ideals on social media he believes create unrealistic standards of wealth, beauty and personal success.

"Those kinds of expectations are creating a barrier and a bit of a dark cloud over dating," he said. 

Frost — who says he is content being single — says previous generations had fewer challenges than what younger people today are facing.

"We have to make sure you have enough money to survive. You can't take care of a family if you can't even take care of yourself and in 2026 I think that looks a lot different than it did even a decade or so ago," he said. 

Experts agree that the growth of singledom raises a lot of questions.

"What does that mean for the kinds of houses we build? The kinds of apartments we build? If there are more and more people living alone, how will that affect taxes?" said Wong. 

Economist Armine Yalnizyan worries about ultra-low fertility rates.  

"Household spending is the primary driver for GDP and people having less children, is a built-in drag on economic growth," she said. 

"It has an impact on what people will buy. It will have an impact on housing because they need smaller housing, cheaper housing, because these days housing is supported by two people, not one." 

Yalnizyan says it can impact other things that might not be considered.

"Single people have less loyalty to their employers because they are not tied down, so not accepting unacceptable working conditions is easier for them," she said.  

There are also concerns about the economic consequences of an aging population with a shrinking labour force and the potential need for more long-term care facilities. 

"If the labour force continues to shrink that will put more pressure on people who do have jobs to do more with less, it will also constrain the growth of public revenue at a time when there is more demand than ever for the public services they pay for," she said.

MacDonald says there is a growing number of people lobbying in Canada for tax laws to change in favour of people who are single. 

"As the conversation and visibility of single people grows, so is the advocacy for their rights," he said. 

For Bow, she says she will continue to spread word on the benefits of singlehood through her content on social media.

"It's so rewarding when I hear back from women that they are going through the same journey, or are recently single and are grateful I'm in this space," she said. 

"The world of relationships and what is considered acceptable or normal is definitely changing and I think it is absolutely for the better."

2026 relationship goal: Stay single?

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