The number of single young men in the United States is climbing sharply.
The population of unmarried men ages 20 to 39 has risen by nearly 50% since 2000 — a trend that may carry troubling consequences for both men and society.
In 2025, the US had 30.4 million bachelors between the ages of 20 and 39, compared with roughly 15.4 million married men, according to a recent report from the Institute for Family Studies.
By contrast, 2000 saw 20.7 million bachelors and 18.1 million husbands. That means the difference between unmarried and married men has grown to nearly six times its former size.
“Such men are more likely to be lonely, prone to deaths of despair and unhappy,” University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox told the Washington Times, referring to bachelors.
“It’s never good for a society to have large numbers of unattached, dispirited, and unhappy young men.”
Wilcox said marriage and child-rearing have declined most rapidly among working-class men. He also highlighted the growing number of young men who spend their time playing video games or are addicted to social media.
“The digital revolution has exacted a major toll on their social skills, their opportunities to mix and mingle and their educational attainment,” he said.
Wilcox added that schools may be contributing to the problem because they often fail to address boys’ interests and educational needs.
The share of 40-year-olds who had never married also reached about 25% for both genders in 2021, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. That figure was 6% in 1980.
Men accounted for 28% of those who had never married, compared with 22% of women.
The median age at which American men enter their first marriage is now about 31, up from 23.5 in 1975, according to US Census Bureau data.
The findings follow reports that more than two-thirds of Americans do not socialize on a typical day. Gen Z appears to have been especially affected, having spent important developmental years in COVID lockdowns.
Gen Z is also described as the most distrustful generation, with only 13% agreeing that most people can be trusted.
Meanwhile, nearly 10% of Gen Z respondents said they had no face-to-face interaction with another person during their daily lives.
