Interview, Fireside Chat
Why relationships are declining across the world
- Singlehood rates among adults aged 25–34 in America are projected to have doubled over the past five decades, with a notable acceleration in the last five to ten years, while the share of people living alone is expected to continue rising across the developed world after increasing in 26 of 30 OECD countries between 2010 and 2022.
- Pandemic-era generations are expected to face lost dating skills due to missed formative periods in handling rejection, a trend compounded by continued high screen time on phones, video games, and couches driving the "Generation Single" phenomenon.
- Dating app algorithms are anticipated to further narrow eligible partner pools, with minimum height requirements potentially excluding up to 85% of men, while demographic trends indicate low-educated men and highly educated women will remain disproportionately single in East Asia.
- Highly educated women are expected to persist in rejecting partners who are "mediocre" or refuse to share household labor and patriarchal views, with the latter group potentially marrying women from poorer Southeast Asian nations.
- Approximately 60 to 70 percent of single individuals are expected to prefer being in a relationship, yet many remain involuntarily single due to despair or the difficulty of finding suitable partners, whereas voluntarily single individuals are projected to report higher levels of happiness, life satisfaction, and optimism.
- Involuntarily single men, including the "incel" subculture, are expected to become increasingly vocal and angry on social media and in political spheres, with these Western anger and singlehood trends anticipated to spread globally, including to South Korea where women are forming movements for "no dating, no marriage, no sex, no babies."
- A shift toward defining masculinity positively is considered necessary to prevent toxic trends from permeating global politics and societies, particularly if men fail to adapt to more egalitarian standards.
- The continuation of coupling declines is expected to cause fertility rates to fall faster than current levels and create structural spending implications for governments requiring more housing and flats to accommodate the growing number of people living alone.
- Demographers anticipate the question of where this singlehood trend will plateau remains open even in highly egalitarian societies like Scandinavia, where rates continue to climb.