Report: Majority of American adults are single

For the first time, new research shows more than half of the adults in the United States are not married.

The research was published online by CityLab and the Martin Prosperity Institute on Monday (9/15/14).

An analysis of census data from 2013 found that there were about 128.2 million singles in the United States. That comes out to 51.2 percent of the population.

The CityLab report says that Bloomberg reported similar findings based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. It says the Bloomberg report found 50.2 percent of Americans are single, up from 37.6 percent in 1976.

The CityLab report also broke the statistics down by state and by metro area. It suggests the southwest, southeast and northeast have the highest concentrations of single adults while the upper Midwest and northern Rockies had the lowest:

Most single adults: Fewest single adults: Louisiana
Rhode Island
New York
Mississippi
New Mexico
California
Florida
Massachusetts
Nevada
Maryland Utah
Idaho
Wyoming
Iowa
Nebraska
New Hampshire
Kansas
Minnesota
North Dakota
Montana

Broken down by metropolitan area, the report found that college towns had the largest share of singles. Gainesville, FL topped the list with the biggest share of singles at 62.1%. St. George, UT was at the bottom of the list at 38.8%.

Data for Colorado Springs was not provided, but the report says that among the top 51 largest U.S. metro areas, Denver comes in at the bottom of the list.

Most single adults: Fewest single adults: New Orleans
Memphis
Miami
Los Angeles
Buffalo
Las Vegas
Providence
Philadelphia
New York
Baltimore San Jose
Salt Lake City
Raleigh
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Kansas City
Dallas
Oklahoma City
Denver
Charlotte
Houston

CityLab says the cities at the bottom of the list may be surprising to some, but that they likely rank where they do because they are home to a large number of young people who are in their prime marrying years.

A map accompanying the CityLab report suggests that the Colorado Springs area has a smaller number of single adults than both the Denver and Pueblo metro areas.