A couple of years ago, a sociologist told us how amazing it was to live alone. Professor Eric Klinenberg titled his book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. The New York-based academic told a great story: how demographics show a dramatic rise in solo living and how upbeat singletons live strong, healthy lives as fulfilled and happy individuals free to make their own connections with the outside world.
There were some downsides. Isolation is very bad for people. Singletons fear getting ill or growing old alone. And if you are solo and skint, then life can be pretty miserable. But generally, living solo is good for individuals and good for societies. "Singletons play an essential yet unappreciated role in revitalising cities and animating public spaces. Compared with married people, they're more likely to eat out in cafés and restaurants, exercise in a gym, take art classes, attend public events and volunteer," writes Klinenberg.
Whoop-de-doo. What's not to like? A thudding reality check comes in UK research published last month by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. At the start of the recession, fewer than one in 10 under-35s who lived alone were in dire poverty. The latest data on Minimum Income Standard show that proportion is now one in four.
That means 25 per cent of young people living alone have less than half what is regarded as the minimum living standard. In practice, that means having less than about £12 a day after paying rent and council tax. As the report's co-author Donald Hirsch points out, this money has to cover food, clothing, heating, furniture and all of life’s other necessities.
Which is a rather different picture from that painted by Eric Klinenberg. If you are under 35 and living alone on less than half what you need for an acceptable standard of living, you don't do much in the way of revitalising cities and animating public spaces. You don't eat out in cafés and restaurants, exercise in a gym or sign up for art classes. You do your best to survive. In 2008, there were 100,000 young adults in the UK in that position. By 2012, there were nearly 300,000. Extraordinary rise and surprising appeal, indeed.
PJ White is editor of Youth Money
