Chamber of Commerce ranked Richmond fourth on “loneliest cities” list

Illustration by Kirsten Sturgill

Jack Glagola, Contributing Writer

Topping the “loneliest cities” list are Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Missouri, and Alexandria, Virginia, followed by Richmond. 

The list ranks these cities by the total number of “lonely” people. Someone is defined as “lonely” if they are living in a one-person household, according to the Chamber of Commerce.

28% of women and over 18% of men in Richmond live alone — altogether, 46.2% of Richmond’s residents, according to Census data published by the Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of Commerce analyzed over 170 places designated by the Census with a population of at least 150,000, according to the study. 

Richmond City resident, Kate Berinhout, said she is not originally from Richmond, but moved here because of the demographics and size. 

“I like to be able to go home and have my own space. I like to be able to control whether or not I have people there,” Berinhout said. “Alone time is really important to me.”

Lower housing costs are a draw, especially for Northern Virginia residents, who have come to the Richmond area in increasing numbers, according to Axios.

Richmond has the fifth-highest percentage of renters seeking to move here from other places, according to a Apartment List study.

Chris Purvis, an engineer at Civica Rx, said his experience in college was the reason he lives alone. 

“I had lived with roommates all through college, for seven or eight years, and just wanted to not have random roommates,” Purvis said.

Purvis is also not originally from Richmond, having come here from Charlottesville to live closer to his girlfriend.

Collin Czarnecki, a researcher at the Chamber of Commerce, said that the pandemic was one of the reasons the study was put together. 

“We are sort of seeing a big change in migration patterns, people moving to a new town or city. The pandemic has also seen an increase in flexibility with work — a lot of people are able to work remotely now,” Czarnecki said.

Migration and the disruption of the pandemic are not the only drivers of living alone. Since the 1990s, the median age to get married has increased, currently at 30 years old for men and 28 years old for women, according to Czarnecki.

“I think marriage plays another factor in terms of living situations, living environments, how people are choosing to live and who they’re choosing to live with,” Czarnecki said. “This is why we wanted to look at, over the past several years, has living alone seen an increase due to the pandemic and factors such as putting off marriage at a later age?”

The data could be a good way to examine the long-term effects of the pandemic, whether it only reflects changes resulting from the pandemic or is indicative of a larger trend of more people living alone, according to Czarnecki.

Living in a one-person household does not necessarily mean one is socially alone, but more research is needed to determine a correlation, according to Czarnecki.

“Obviously, you could have lots of friends and just choose to live alone,” Czarnecki said. “Does living alone really correlate with being emotionally lonely?” 

There was no geographic trend in the prevalence of men versus women living alone, according to Czarnecki.

“We didn’t specifically look at the reasons why males and females might choose to live alone. But, going back to the median age to marry, for females it is slightly lower than males. There would be more females living with a spouse,” Czarnecki said.

A quarter of women and over a fifth of men in Washington, D.C. live alone, according to the Chamber of Commerce.

“The metro D.C. area, including some of those cities in Virginia, are pretty transient. People either work in D.C. and live outside the area, or come from time to time throughout the year. Just knowing that a lot of people live in and out of the city, it isn’t too surprising,” Czarnecki said.

While the study did not look at age demographics, Czarnecki said it was worth examining how Baby Boomers, those born between 1946-1964; Millennials, those born between 1981-1996; and Generation Z, those born between 1997-2012, compare.

Czarnecki said a follow-up study was possible in the coming years as more Census Bureau estimates come out to determine whether this is an effect of the pandemic or a longer-lived trend.

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