Never before have there been so many single Danes

With 1.6 million people not living in a relationship, it marks the highest number since the statistics bureau began keeping records on living arrangements 30 years ago. 

 

Singles now account for 37 percent of all adult Danes, with ‘single’ being defined as someone who does not live full-time with a spouse or partner and does not have children living at home. 

 

The stats show significant differences in when men and women live alone. For those aged 22 to 57, men are more likely to live alone while single women are more prevalent among those aged 58 and above. 

 

See also: All the single ladies… live in Copenhagen

 

Mogens Nygaard Christofferson, a senior researcher at the Danish National Centre for Social Research, said there is a simple reason for the age difference. 

 

“Among the elderly there will always be a surplus of women because death rates for men and boys in all age groups is above that of women,” he told Ritzau. 

 

There are also notable regional differences. In Copenhagen, 43 percent of adults aged 30 and 39 are single, while in the Zealand municipality of Allerød, that figure is just 18 percent. 

 

Christofferson said that the record number of singles doesn’t mean that Danes have turned their backs on relationships despite recent reports that more and more people prefer being single to entering a committed relationship. 

 

“This is a way to rationalize later when they can’t find partners. In that way they can convince themselves that it is something they have chosen,” he said.