The shelf · Living alone and single life
Does Happy Singlehood hold up?
Happy Singlehood: The Rising Acceptance and Celebration of Solo Living, by Elyakim Kislev (2019)
A sociologist uses survey data from more than 30 countries and 142 interviews to explain what makes single people happy.
The short answer
Its China figure is now well out of date, and one projection is misdescribed: it is about adults in 2010, not newborns.
The claims, checked
One-person households in China rose from 4.9% in 1990 to 14.5% in 2010.
Outdated China's 2020 census put one-person households at 25.4%.
Evidence: National University of Singapore brief on the census
About a quarter of US newborns are predicted never to marry.
Does not hold Pew's 25% projection is about adults aged 25–34 in 2010 still never married by 2030, not about newborns.
Evidence: Pew Research Center, 2014
Singles make up about 40% of households in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany.
Holds with conditions For Sweden, Eurostat put one-person households at 52% in 2016, so 40% understates it.
Evidence: Eurostat, 2017