Being Single at 50: Why It’s the New Normal for Women Today
It certainly takes some courage to be single in midlife, but it can also be one of the most empowering chapters of midlife. In fact, there are more people single at 50 and happy to be so than ever before.
Whether by choice or circumstance, many are discovering that this stage of life is not about loss, but about freedom, self-rediscovery, and independence. Far from feeling lonely, many women embrace this time as an opportunity to reconnect with themselves, redefine happiness, and live life on their own terms.
Despite what traditional dating narratives often suggest, being single at 50 doesn’t mean something is missing. For many, it means the opposite: you’re already whole and there is no “missing half” to find, because fulfillment can come from within, from friendships, passions, and a life built entirely around your own choices.
CrunchyTales has explored why being single at 50 is the new normal.
The Rise of Being Single at 50
Midlife today looks very different from previous generations. People are living longer, staying healthier, and rethinking what fulfilment really means. As a result, being single at 50 is becoming more common and more accepted than ever before.
Many are choosing not to remarry or enter new long-term relationships simply because they don’t feel the need. Instead, they are building rich, meaningful lives centred on autonomy, friendship, travel, creativity, and personal growth.
This shift reflects a broader cultural change: happiness is no longer defined solely by romantic partnership.
“People who are single at heart lead their best, most authentic lives on their own. It’s ridiculous to assume that everyone who is alone is lonely“, social scientist and TEDx speaker Bella DePaulo (PhD), author of the bestseller “Single with Attitude” explains. “It’s just as ridiculous to claim that single people are less connected than those who are in relationships. Studies show that the opposite is true. Once people partner up they become less connected to friends and family because they build a life around their partner“.
According to DePaulo, time alone for solo dwellers can be relaxing, fulfilling, and rejuvenating. It offers opportunities for self-reflection and spirituality as well as allowing you to spread your wings as far as they would unfurl.
Solitude can feel familiar, even intimate and empowering. Take twice-divorced TV celebrity Carol Vorderman, for instance. She recently talked about being “happily single” for a while, saying that she was finally revelling in doing her own thing and running on her own “clock“. Thrice-married actress Kim Cattrall, 65, experienced being single, too. “You know so much more about what you want and what you don’t want and what you’ll put up with”, she says.”I feel in that area, romantically, retired.”
Hally Barry and Drew Barrymore have also discussed how empowering it is to stand on your own and focus on one’s desires and achievements. “The truth is, most likely, one day you will meet someone and it will be gone. And once it’s gone, it’s really gone!” says Drew Barrymore. “Why does no one tell us how important it is to enjoy being single and being by yourself?”
Single at 50: a growing demographic
Whether or not people are choosing to stay single for good, statistics show that it’s become far more common, across all ages. While only 28% of U.S. adults were single in 1960, the number now stands at an astounding 45%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This is fueled by a rising divorce rate among older Americans. The divorce rate for adults aged 50 and up has doubled since the 1990s, according to a Pew Research Center report. And only 15% of divorced or widowed women say they want to remarry, found Pew, while 29% of men say the same.
The Office for National Statistics in the UK also shows that women not living in a couple, who have never married, is rising in every age range under 70. In the decade-and-a-half between 2002 and 2018, the figure for those aged 40 to 70 rose by half a million. The percentage of never-married singletons in their 40s doubled.
What’s more, according to a study published in The Journal of Gerontology by Anne Boger and Oliver Huxhold, satisfaction with single life increased over time, historically, and with age. Partnership status became less relevant to loneliness over time and with age.
Why So Many People Are Happier Single at 50
There are several reasons why more women than ever before are choosing to be single at midlife.
“Think of all those hours of sleep you’ve already got on the rest of humanity“, says Emma John award-winning author of ‘Self-Contained: Scenes from a Single Life. “All the nights no partner or child has kicked you awake. Holidays will also be better. No compromise destinations, no make-the-best-of-it camping, no hours of enforced boredom in the cafe of a soft-play centre. You won’t be hamstrung by your partner’s reluctance to go out or the complex tapestry of kids’ extra-curricular activity”.
Nowadays, there may be less predictability to how your life unfolds if you stay single, as compared to following the more celebrated life script of marrying and having children, and then more possibilities. According to DePaulo, women are no longer tethered to husbands for economic life support. Neither men nor women need a spouse to have sex without stigma or shame. Children born to single mothers now have the same legal rights as those born to married mothers.
“When sex, parenting, and economic viability were all wound up together in the tight knot that was marriage, the difference between single life and married life was profound“, she explains. “Now, the institution of marriage remains ensconced in our laws, our politics, our religions, and our cultural imagination. But it is of little true significance as a meaningful life transition“.
Single at 50 Is Often a Choice
It’s important to recognise that for many people, being single at 50 is not something that simply happens: it is often a deliberate and empowering choice. After years of relationships, responsibilities, or simply personal reflection, many decide they are happier on their own. They actively choose independence over compromise, freedom over obligation, and self-fulfilment over societal expectations.
Rather than waiting for a partner to complete their life, they choose to design a life that already feels complete.
People who aren’t single don’t understand that it’s possible to be happy without a partner, so they may make judgments as a result. However, instead of getting mad at your friends or family members for their assumptions, try your best to ignore them; you know that you’re happy flying solo, and that’s what matters.
It is time, surely, to change the rules and the conversation. “As the population of never-married women expands, we should be honest about what it meant, and means, to be one “, concludes Emma John. “We should celebrate our identity and the life experience that has been given to us. We should reclaim our history and stop being defined by others. Why not start by taking back that dread word, spinster?”
On the same page Catherine Gray, author of ‘The Unexpected Joy of Being Single‘. “Over a third of us are now single in the UK. With the single camp growing at ten times the rate of the actual population. But nobody seems to have told society, romcom makers, songwriters, marriage-hungry mothers, ‘tick-tock’ uncles, our mates or us that. Let’s start the reverse brainwash and locate our happily single sanity, for good – she writes –What is being single, really? It’s freedom, space, financial independence, emotional autonomy, mastery of all the tasks, and sourcing love and romance in your friends and family. Being single for an extended period gives you a set of skills that make you feel slightly invincible, so to ever put those down just because you have a ring is madness.”
Is Being Single at 50 the New Normal?
Social trends suggest that it might be. With rising divorce rates later in life and a growing number of people choosing not to remarry, singlehood in midlife is becoming increasingly common. But more importantly, it is becoming respected and even celebrated.
Being single at 50 now looks like an opportunity to focus on yourself, and falling in love with yourself first is actually the most important relationship you need to deal with.
“Ten years as a single woman, me. I’ve been in relationships since I was fourteen – explains the model and CEO of ‘Golden Age Models’ Shama Persson –. I’ve gone from one person’s arms to another’s, sometimes messily overlapping one relationship with another. My friends have divorced and met a new man, only to separate again, or stayed with the same man for thirty years. There aren’t many people around me who are single, actually, and it doesn’t hurt me at all. The first five years, it hurt to see others in relationships and happy in them. Today, I’m happy for them if they are happy. Friendship has come to mean so much, and life itself. Previously, a relationship equaled happiness, today a good life equals happiness”.
So perhaps the real question is no longer “Why are you still single at 50?” but rather: “What kind of life do you want to create for yourself now?”
Make peace with who and what you are, with your strengths and your weaknesses, and be happy.
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