[ignu]

It's really a shame that our culture ascribes living on your own to status.

A new living space to heat, cool, light and manage just to live up to our culture's view of success is incredibly wasteful.

[phil248]

The size of my apartment, which houses one person, is a tiny fraction of the size of the house I grew up in, which housed 3 people. Living on my own is dramatically less wasteful than even 6 or 7 people living in that big house.

So it depends on the spaces in question. Urban living is typically compact and economical. Suburban living is expansive, what with the yards, cars and multi-mile trips to the store.