Singles Awareness Day is a holiday that falls on February 15th and is dedicated to single people. In fact, it’s a holiday on which single people can not only celebrate their “singleness” but can also embrace it.

This holiday, also known as Singles Appreciation Day, is a push-back against Valentine’s Day—a holiday that many people feel is not only too commercialized but also places a lot of pressure on people to hurry up and find a mate so they can buy them the perfect gift.

A gift usually involves a hefty expenditure of money, like jewelry or flowers. While people normally celebrate this holiday on February 15th, some people like to celebrate it as a protest against Valentine’s Day, so they observe it on the 14th of February.

The History of Singles Awareness Day

As hard as we tried to find the origins of this holiday, we just couldn’t find out who invented it. There are various theories as to when and where this holiday was created, but there is no concrete evidence to support any of them.

It was invented sometime between 1999 and 2005, and it was probably invented by someone who wanted to take a stand against St. Valentine’s Day—a day that many people feel is a holiday that’s too commercialized.

Facts About Singles Awareness Day

Since we’re on the subject of singles, perhaps we should take a few moments to learn some facts about them. Below are some statistics on single people that we’ve learned about over the course of our research for this holiday.

• In the U.S., there are over 106 million singles. That’s approximately 44% of the adult population.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 10% of adults will never get married.
• A majority of households in the U.S. are headed by unmarried adults.
• Opposite-sex unmarried cohabitation has increased from the 1990s onward.
• In 1982, approximately 20% of live births were to singles. In 1992, that increased to over 30%.
• In 2009, about 40% of all births were to single mothers.
• According to recent studies, single people sleep better than married people.
• Single people also have less stress about money issues than married people.
• During the 2009 financial crisis, the jobs of 6 million singles were lost, but 90% of those jobs were regained later.
• Singles subsidize the tax breaks that married people receive.
• Single people are more likely to volunteer in civic organizations.
• Single people are more likely to maintain their figure into middle age than married people.
• In 2006, there were 14.4 million families with single mothers. In 2019, that number increased to 14.8 million.

Singles Awareness Day Customs & Traditions

Singles Awareness Day is a very versatile holiday. People can choose to celebrate it in any way they choose. If they want to embrace their “singleness,” they can use it as a reason to go hang out with their other single friends. If they want, they can even exchange gifts and go out to dinner with them.

They can also use the holiday to buy something nice for themselves—a kind of way to celebrate being single. It’s also a good day for people to head out to the local bar or club and see if they can’t find themselves a relationship. Of course, not everyone is looking for a relationship but wants to instead use this day for some self-improvement.

It really doesn’t matter how a person celebrates this day because there isn’t a right or wrong way to celebrate it. Those people who do choose to celebrate may want to use the hashtag #SinglesAwarenessDay or #SinglesAppreciationDay to spread the word about it online.