Today begins a three-part series about single adults. My guest blogger for this series is Dr. PJ Dunn.

Singles are not just in your community; they are your community. At Table for One Ministries, we advocate for single adults and build community for singles through discipleship. All of the statistics above (and more) are cited at www.tfoministries.org. I am honored to share a series of posts this week on Ken Braddy’s blog about single adults. I hope this will help your church and/or your small group reach and engage more single adults.

Did you know?

• 53% of all adults in America are single
• 62% of all singles in America have never been married
• 25 years old is the average age for a college student
• The average age for marriage is 30 for men and 28 for women
• 45% of all first time marriages now end in divorce
• 4 out of 10 families are single parent households
• 57 years old is the average for a widow
• Nearly 20% of Gen Z struggles with sexual identity

Singles are unique. To understand singles, you first have to see them. Singles come from many backgrounds; most would even prefer not to use the word single to describe themselves. There are 8 types of single adults in America, and defining them is the first step in seeing them.

Collegiate Singles

• Adults 18-22 who are single.
  • College is no longer a term we can solely use to describe 18-22 year old adults. The average age for a full time college student is 25, 71% work while attending college, and 1/3 will never graduate college after starting.

Singles Never Married

• Adults 22+ never married.
  • All types of singles except collegiate all to all ages. Singles never married make up the majority of singles in your community at 63% of all singles. They may or may not be looking to date, so never assume their desires for marriage.

Dating Singles

• Singles who are actively looking to date.
  • 58% of singles say they want to be married “someday.” Still, they do not like outside pressure to marry, as dating is more complicated than ever. Dating singles have endless ways to connect to new possible mates; however, community is still the number one way they find their spouse in person.

Engaged Singles

• Singles who are engaged with a ring on the finger
  • Until you are married, you are single. The average length of an engagement is 14 years, and the average wedding is nearly $30,000, with 25% of those being destination weddings. Half of engaged couples cohabitate before marriage.

Divorced Singles

• Singles who were married and legally divorced.
  • With 45% of all marriages ending in divorce, the average age for a divorce is not 30 years old. On average divorced singles who remarry will do so in 3 years. The primary issue for divorce is happiness and finances.

Single Parents

• Parents of children who are not married.
  • This includes single parents who divorced, were widowed, chose to adopt, or had a child out of marriage. Never assume how a single parent became a single parent. 40% of all families are single parent households, the largest in America’s history and rising.

Widows

• Singles who were married when their spouse passed.
  • Tragedy happens, and widows are of all ages. The average age of a widow is 57, and they will spend 14 years alone. They want to remember their spouse and learn to be single again.

Same-Sex Attraction

• Singles who struggle with attraction to the same-sex
  • Biblical marriage is between one man and one woman. Nearly 11% of the population struggles with same-sex feelings, and 77% of the LGBTQ+ community identifies as Christian.

Now that we have defined singles, you may ask a few questions. “How could my church connect singles to my group?” and “How can we be a single-friendly church?” I will address these questions in the two subsequent blog posts that will be released later this week in separate posts.

Seeing singles and not assuming who singles are will help you connect to single adults. Our desire at Table for One Ministries is to assist you in any way we can in that journey. Please visit our website and reach out for more information, www.tfoministries.org.