MOVE over Bridget Jones: the young singleton thoroughly miserable about living alone is now twice as likely to be male.

Forlorn thirtysomething women drowning their sorrows in chardonnay at home with only a cat for company hardly exist.

Research suggests that while most young women choose to live alone and revel in their own space their male counterpart — Bruce Jones — is lonely, depressed and has no one to talk to after a bad day.

The number of 25 to 44-year-old men living in solo households has risen tenfold since 1973, to 1.3 million. That accounts for 15 per cent of their age group, compared with 8 per cent of similarly aged women living on their own.

Rising levels of divorce and the lack of custody by fathers have been blamed for the phenomenon, which was summed up by one man interviewed for the Unilever Family Report: “I’m far too old to be with my parents, far too single to be with a partner and far too private to want to share with a mate.”

The attitude of women towards living alone was encapsulated by one who said: “I like the freedom, privacy, relaxation and ability to do what I want with my own home.”

Single-person households have risen from 18 per cent of all homes in 1971 to 29 per cent today, and are projected to account for 35 per cent of households by 2021.

The report concludes: “Men generally find living alone harder than women, and are less likely to say they chose to live alone. Women are more likely than men to see friends and family frequently as a result of living alone. Men are more likely to feel lonely.”

Relationship breakdown was said to be a main causes of the rise in solo living. The effect on poorer people could be emotionally and financially tough.

The research found that for younger, middle-class women, “living alone has become a new rite of passage”, which they wanted to experience before settling down. Such women actively sought the independence associated with solo living.

But people who ended up living alone through circumstance, not choice, tended to be male, older and working class. However, there were still many more older women than older men living on their own.

The Institute for Public Policy Research interviewed more than 1,100 people aged 25 to 44 who live on their own. It found that Scotland had the most solo households.

Living alone was said to be more expensive and 43 per cent were worse off. Some people who live alone are in stable relationships; 12 per cent have had the same partner for more than two years and nearly 25 per cent see their boyfriend or girlfriend every day.

That group is described as the Living Apart Togethers, some of whom said they had strong relationships precisely because they lived alone.

MATTHEW WAGHORNE, 36, has lived alone for 2½ years since his divorce. He now shares a two-bedroom flat in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, with his cat, Purdey.

Mr Waghorne, a promotions manager, said: “I’d never lived on my own before but had to get my own place. I stayed with my parents for a week.

“The flat was chaotic when I moved in and I hated it. I had to do all the moving on my own and it took ages.

“It’s still undecorated and looks like a hurricane has hit it. I have a room I call the pit which is filled with boxes.

“I can cook, clean and iron but the thing that gets me is doing the finances and paperwork.

“I run up terrible phone bills and there are times when I feel so very alone. I did suffer from depression a while ago, and I hate walking around the supermarket getting enough food for one.”

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