The solo penalty, from rent to holidays: ‘Being single is costing me £12,000 extra a year’

There were 8.4 million people living alone in the UK in 2023, up from 7.8 million a decade earlier. Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

In popular culture, narratives about being single generally flip between the joys of unparalleled freedom or lean into cliches that depict those flying solo as lonely or desperate for love.

Stereotypes of the “crazy cat lady” or the socially awkward man who lives with his parents abound. But something often forgotten, many singles would argue, is the significant added costs they face on account of their relationship status.