Adults are more likely to be single today than they were in 1970. They are marrying for the first time much later than the previous generation and many are becoming single again because of divorce or the death of their spouses. In 1970, 38 million, or 28 percent, of all adults 18 years and older were single (never married, divorced, or widowed); by 1988, this number had grown to 66 million, or 37 percent of adults.

Singleness, in most instances, is a temporary state--about 90 percent of people will eventually marry and, of those who divorce, about 70 percent will remarry.