The shelf · Living alone and single life
Does Solo hold up?
Solo: Building a Remarkable Life of Your Own, by Peter McGraw (2024)
A behavioural scientist's guide to choosing and designing a single life.
The short answer
Half right. Single people do keep more informal ties, but married people volunteer more through organisations.
The claims, checked
Single people have more friends and are more involved in their communities than partnered people.
Holds with conditions Supported for informal ties to friends, neighbours and relatives. US snapshot data only.
Evidence: Sarkisian and Gerstel, 2016
Single people donate more of their time to the community.
Contested For formal volunteering it is the reverse: in 2015, 29.9% of married people volunteered against 19.9% of never-married people. It holds only for informal help.
Evidence: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016