Photo by Mr. T in DCNearly half of the households in the District and Alexandria are made up of single people living alone, according to this story by the Washington Post. The findings are based on data released today from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006-2008 American Community Survey Data, which show that 26.7 percent of all households in the District are single females living alone, while 20.8 percent are single men living alone, adding up to over 47 percent of the city. That’s the same percentage of single households in Alexandria, with Arlington County trailing not far off at 45 percent. By contrast, only 26 percent of households in Fairfax County were single people for the same time period.
So what’s the deal? The Post’s article focuses more on recent development changes in the nearby suburbs, quoting a couple of demographers saying those areas are more appealing to young people these days. I’ll buy that, but it’s sort of missing the point: who are all these unmarried people who can afford to live alone inside the city itself? Is there a secret cache of affordable 1-bedrooms I just couldn’t find when last I went apartment hunting? Or is it possible that this survey managed to miscount the number of singles who are living with roommates?
