Main content

Do single people get a raw deal?

Ant Adeane looks at whether life in Britain is stacked against single people and whether society should find new ways to address their needs through political change.

Single people make up a large proportion of the population in Britain. People are marrying later and less, getting divorced more often, and living longer. Although not all people who live alone are single, the growth of one-person households now outstrips the rise in the UK population - and is projected to continue.

And yet life in Britain often seems ill-suited to their needs. Being single is expensive and modern dating can be brutal. The idea that being in a couple provides greater happiness and fulfillment still has a tight grip on our collective psyche. So is it right to say that singles get discriminated against? And are there ways we might re-imagine life in Britain so that singles get a fairer deal?

Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound Engineer: Kelly Young
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck

Contributors:
Amy Key - Poet and Author of Arrangements in Blue: Notes of Love and Making a Life
Sarah Harper - Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford
Emma John - Journalist and Author of Self Contained: Scenes from a Single Life
Ben Arogundade - Author of My Terrifying, Shocking, Humiliating, Amazing Adventure in Online Dating
Elyakim Kislev - Professor of Public Policy and Government at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of numerous books about single life
Sasha Roseneil - Sociologist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Mon 4 Sep 2023 11:30

Broadcasts

  • Mon 26 Jun 2023 20:30
  • Mon 4 Sep 2023 11:30

Podcast