ERC Starting Grant project SINGLE: Understanding the Demography and Stratification of Singlehood in Europe.

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SINGLE takes a comparative social demographic approach to examine the dynamics of singlehood across Europe, focusing on population trends and social inequality—both within and between countries. The project aims to answer two fundamental questions: (1) what the scope of singlehood in the adult population is, and (2) how social stratification is reproduced within the single population. To address the first question, SINGLE will develop a ‘demography of singlehood’ framework by estimating its prevalence, composition, and duration across Europe. The project also aims to evaluate whether our demographic conclusions are stable across the many definitions of ‘being single.’ Additionally, SINGLE will collect original survey data to improve our cross-national understanding of selection processes into singlehood, and whether the people that social scientists identify as ‘single’ also self-identify as such.

 

Moving beyond demographics, SINGLE will investigate how social inequality unfolds among singles, focusing on gender, age, and education as major stratification axes. By examining the interplay of demographic, economic, and cultural factors, the project will examine whether, how, and where social stratification is reinforced or challenged between different groups of singles. Specifically, the project will examine the social stratification of—how singles spend their time, their well-being, the perceived pressures to find a partner, and access to formal and informal support systems. The project’s novel cross-national approach and original data collection will shed new light on the opportunities and challenges European singles face while identifying the individual and contextual factors that drive them.

 

 

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