Going solo as one

Bill Dunster, an architect working on the BedZed housing scheme in south London. Photograph: Frank Baron
Finally thirty-something single women can relax. Ever since Bridget Jones burst on the public consciousness in the 1990s, we've been painted as wimps who are so scared by the thought of living on our own that we spend every waking minute plotting how to catch a husband, writes Charlotte Moore.

But we're no longer the saddest group in society. That position has been taken by single men aged 35-45 who have been named "regretful loners" by a female academic. This group is apparently the fastest growing section in the booming number of one-person households.

But before single women start feeling too smug, if you are living on your own then you, along with the RLs, are part of an environmental problem. The spiralling number of people living on their own is a recipe for disaster for the environment, says Dr Jo Williams. The problem is that single households consume more and create more waste than individuals sharing a home.

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