This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
Love may still be free, but dating, housing, marriage, and building a life together certainly are not. America’s relationship landscape has changed dramatically. In 2025, the Census Bureau counted 39.7 million one-person households, representing 29% of all households, compared with just 20% in 1975. Married couples, meanwhile, headed only 47% of households, down from 66% five decades earlier.
The trend is not perfectly linear. Pew found that 42% of adults were unpartnered in 2023, slightly below the 44% recorded in 2019. Still, Americans are marrying later, spending more years on their own, and facing financial pressures that can make relationships feel like another expensive commitment.
Here are nine money pressures helping reshape what single life looks like in America.
Dating itself has become shockingly expensive
A first date used to require chemistry and perhaps enough cash for dinner. Now, even getting through the door can hurt the budget. BMO’s 2026 Real Financial Progress Index estimated the average American date costs $189, including expenses such as transportation and grooming.
That is up 12.5% from $168 in 2025. People who dated spent an average of $2,323 over the previous year. Even more revealing, 47% of singles surveyed said dating simply was not financially worth the cost.
When groceries, rent, insurance, and debt payments already compete for every paycheck, another $189 evening can feel less romantic and more like questionable accounting.
Younger Americans are cutting dating before cutting financial goals
The clearest evidence may be what younger adults are already doing. BMO found that half of Gen Z adults and 40% of millennials said dating costs interfered with their financial goals. Half of Americans surveyed said they had either gone on fewer dates or chosen cheaper activities because costs were rising.
Housing costs are swallowing the budget
Housing has become the heavyweight expense in American life. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing accounted for 33.4% of average consumer spending in 2024, making it the largest household expenditure category. Housing spending increased another 3.3% that year, while spending on rented dwellings rose 5.4%.
For singles trying to establish financial independence, that leaves less room for restaurants, weekend trips, gifts, and other expenses that often accompany dating.
It also changes the relationship timeline. Moving in together may once have represented a romantic milestone. Under financial pressure, couples must also ask whether they are combining lives because they are ready or because splitting the rent sounds irresistible.
Marriage keeps getting pushed further into adulthood
That is a remarkable cultural shift.
Those extra years can include college, career building, paying down debt, saving for housing, and trying to reach some version of financial stability before combining finances with somebody else. Marriage has increasingly become something people feel they should prepare for rather than something that automatically marks the beginning of adulthood.
Living with parents can make dating complicated
For millions of younger Americans, independence now arrives later. The Census Bureau reported that 58% of Americans ages 18 to 24 lived in their parental home in 2025. Pew has also found that 64% of young adults living with a parent said the arrangement helped their finances.
Financially, that can make perfect sense. Socially, it can complicate dating. Privacy becomes harder. Hosting someone becomes awkward. Moving in with a partner may require a financial leap that neither person feels prepared to make.
Americans are protecting what little savings they have
A relationship can enrich life, but dating competes with another increasingly urgent goal: building financial security. The Federal Reserve found that only 63% of adults in 2024 could cover an unexpected $400 expense using cash or its equivalent. Just 48% said they could handle a $2,000 emergency from savings.
Financial compatibility has become a dating requirement
Americans are no longer judging potential partners only by attraction, humor, or shared interests. They are also examining financial behavior. BMO found that 94% of Americans considered financial responsibility attractive, while 90% valued having a good financial plan and 89% valued openly discussing money.
Dishonesty about finances ranked among the survey’s biggest financial relationship red flags. That raises the bar.
The cost of starting a family makes commitment feel even bigger
For some people, dating is not viewed in isolation. A serious relationship may lead to marriage, children, childcare, and a larger home. Those future expenses matter.
Among adults under 50 who told Pew they were unlikely to have children, 36% said being unable to afford a child was a major reason. Among adults ages 18 to 39, that figure rose to 41%.
Single life no longer looks like a temporary waiting room
Perhaps the biggest shift has nothing to do with restaurant bills. Living alone has become normal. Nearly three in ten American households now contain just one person, and millions of adults have built routines, friendships, careers, homes, and financial plans without a spouse.
That changes the calculation. A relationship must now compete with an independent life someone may already enjoy. For people who have fought hard to afford their apartment, control their spending, protect their savings, and build stability, the question is no longer simply, “Can I find someone?”
It may be, “Will this relationship make the life I built better?”And in an America where nearly everything costs more, more singles can afford to be selective even when they cannot afford another mediocre date.
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