The Single long a stock figure in stories, songs and personal ads. was traditionally s

omeone at the margins of society: a figure of fun, pity or awe. In the place of withered spinsters and bachelors are people like Elizabeth de Kergorlay, a 29-year-old Parisian banker who views her independence and her own apartment as the spoils of professional success.

As the sages would say, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. 45. This isn't the stuff of gloomy philosophical meditations, but a fact of Europe's new economic landscape, embraced by demographers, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. 46. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyles, observes French sociologist, Jean-Claude Kaufmanns, is part of the "irresistible momentum of individualism" over the last century. 47. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have wreaked havoc on Europeans' private lives. More and more of them are remaining on their own: they're living longer, divorcing more and marrying later—if at all. British marriage rates are the lowest in 160 years of records. INSEE, France's National Institute of Statistics, reports that the number of French people living alone doubled between 1968 and 1990.

Europe's new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. 48. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe's shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style. capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today's tech-savvy workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so. A recent poll by the Institute Francois Dominion Publique, the French affiliate of the Gallup poll, found that 58 percent of French respondents viewed living alone as a choice, not an obligation. Other European singles agree. "I've always wanted to be free to go on adventures," says Iris Expender, who lives by herself in Berlin.

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