DC's Rise of the Singletons

Bridget Jones would love it here

If she was still single, Bridget Jones would love it here.

According to population stats released by the U.S. Census Bureau Tuesday, there are currently more single people living alone in the Washington area than there are households headed by smug married couples.

That's right. The singletons are taking over. In most places here, those living alone make up 20 percent to 30 percent of all households. And in the District and Alexandria, they make up almost half of all households headed by one person. Arlington is a close third, accounting for 45 percent of the single crowd.

More validation of DC's rock-the-single status: "This sort of rubber-stamps Washington as the nation's mecca for singles," demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution told the Washington Post.

The data, based on samples taken from 2006 to 2008, follows national trends, but the Washington area figures are particularly stark, according to the Post.

There's just one thing wrong with those stats: county demographers said they are in part the result of aging baby boomers whose spouses have died and the rise of places built soley for seniors.

OK, there's nothing really wrong with old people, but when we heard there's more people living alone in the DC area, we were thinking hot, young singles. Or, at least, young. (This is DC, after all...)

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Then again, that part of the census might answer DCist's question, who are all these unmarried people who can afford to live alone inside the city itself? 

If it doesn't, we have no clue who these single, rich people are. But we wouldn't mind meeting them, especially when we get a little older.

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