More young American men are single now than ever before. The question remains: why?
Roughly 30.4 million U.S. men ages 18 to 39 were single in 2025 — nearly 10 million more than in 2000, when the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) counted 20.7 million. Consequently, over the last quarter century, the number of married men in the same age range fell from 18.1 million to 15.4 million — a 15% drop.
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Sociologists warn the trend is not merely a lifestyle shift.
IFS fellow Brad Wilcox has said single men are “more likely to be lonely, prone to deaths of despair and unhappy,” adding that “it’s never good for a society to have large numbers of unattached, dispirited and unhappy young men.” Unhappiness among single men rose from 16% in 1980 to 23% in 2020, while the rate among married men stayed roughly stable, between 7% and 8%.
It’s not just rejection of marriage; the picture is more complicated. A separate IFS survey says most unmarried young men still say they want to marry someday, with many also wanting children.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Sarah Holliday and published by Decision Magazine.
