Last week, a bishop appeared on Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder to appeal for more people to get married. Bishop Denis Nulty of the Kildare diocese was prompted to make the call for more weddings on foot of news that the number of people marrying in Ireland has fallen by 10 per cent over the last decade, and he suggested the housing crisis was at least in part to blame for the decline.He called on the Government to consider offering further tax incentives to marrying couples to reverse the downward trend.While the bishop was no doubt well-meaning in his intent, and while it is undoubtedly true to say the housing crisis has made it more difficult for young people to buy a home – or even find one they can affordably rent – couples who intend to marry might be considered quite well-off compared to another cohort. We’re talking about Ireland’s growing single population. According to census data, as many as one in four Irish adults live in single-person households. Many of them are forced to pay through the nose for their situations, and there is little talk from any quarter of offering them any support. But what is the cost of being single in Ireland right now?Outside of mortgages or rent, groceries are the next biggest expense for households. While single-person households do spend less than households made up of couples, the former do not spend half that amount, as you might expectIn a word, it is savage. Here are just 10 ways in which single people have to pay more than those who are coupled up – and when they are totted up and spread over a lifetime, the cost is exorbitant. 1. We will start with a roof over a person’s head. Recent figures from property website daft.ie highlighted how the cost of renting in Ireland surged by 4.4 per cent between December and March as the Government’s new rent control system came into effect. The research put the average cost of renting a home at €2,176. That is 40 per cent above pre-Covid levels, 75 per cent above the Celtic Tiger peak and 81 per cent higher than rents were a decade ago. In urban centres the cost is even more penal, with few homes going for less than €2,500 a month. A couple gets to share that burden, whereas a single person looking for a home to call their own has to pay the full whack alone. Over the course of a year, they are worse off than each of the two people in a couple by an average of €13,200. 2. Paying the actual rent is not the only way in which the single person is penalised financially, with the State lending a hand to the higher prices too. In the wake of the cost-of-living crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the spring of 2022, the last government – which was strikingly similar to the current one - rolled out rental tax credits which were initially worth €500, before they climbed to €750 and then €1,000. That is all well and good, but the tax credit is individual, which means a couple benefit on the double, and are better off to the tune of €2,000 a year as a result of the Minister for Finance’s, um, largesse. A single person – despite being expected to pay exactly the same level of rent as the couple – only gets a credit worth €1,000. 3. While single renters have it hard, single buyers – or those who would like to buy – arguably have it even tougher. According to recent figures from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland, the median price for a home bought by a first-time buyer jumped by about €100,000, or a third, over the five years to 2025, when it hit €399,000. The value of individual mortgages over that same period was up 34 per cent, or €80,000, to €316,000. Someone looking to buy in Dublin can only marvel at such bargains, however, and won’t get much with a mortgage of €316,000. [ ‘It just absolutely baffles me’: How Ireland’s ‘single tax’ hurts at weddings as well as on mortgagesOpens in new window ]Under Central Bank rules, a first-time buyer can borrow four times their income, and must have been able to save 10 per cent of the value of their mortgage. That means a single person looking to buy a house worth €400,000 needs to earn about €80,000 a year and have been able to save €40,000 on their own. A working couple looking to buy the same house, meanwhile, need to be earning €40,000 each. The monthly repayments on a mortgage of €360,000 over 30 years, at 3 per cent interest, are €1,517 – a cost that a single person has to bear alone, unlike a couple who can split it down the middle. That means the single person is paying €9,102 more a year, and when spread over the lifetime of the loan, that single person will pay an eye-watering €273,060 more than they would if they were part of a couple who were splitting the repayments down the middle. Then there is the cost of mortgage protection policies and property tax, which add at least €300 a year to the financial burden of the single person.4. When it comes to running a home, the single person is also financially disadvantaged. The average cost of heating and lighting a home and paying for all the energy needed to live comparatively comfortably is about €3,200 a year. It costs the same to heat and light a room if there is one person in it or five, and it costs pretty much the same to cook a meal for one as it does for five, so while each person in a couple can reasonably expect to pay half of the most basic of utility bills, a single person has to bear the cost alone – which sees them pay in the region of €1,600 more a year. Just as it is with energy, services such as broadband, television and streaming don’t really care how many people are using them, and the costs are the same for a couple as they are for a single person. A television licence for one costs exactly the same as a television licence for two. If we allow €140 a month to cover all those costs, then the couple come out on top to the tune of €70, which works out at €840 a year. The single person does, however, make some modest savings when it comes to a mobile phone. While they might get by with spending €480 a year on the phone, a couple will spend twice that. When we add the cost of bin charges, which a single person has to bear alone, it adds another €200 onto their annual bills. 5. While some of the costs faced by single people make sense, others seem most peculiar. Earlier this year we were contacted by a woman driver who had recently been widowed. She said the cost of their joint premium last year was €415. After her husband had died, she went to renew her policy and was quoted €660. She asked why a policy with fewer drivers on it would cost more “and the only explanation I was given was that removing my husband meant I ‘lost my spouse discount’,” she wrote. The company involved said that while it could not comment on the specifics, “single-driver and multi-driver policies can carry different risk profiles, which may impact premiums”.After we highlighted this story, others contacted us to say they too had found themselves being penalised for taking out single-driver policies – so we will here add €200 a year to the driving-related costs faced by single people. [ ‘So far our divorce has been amicable but Bank of Ireland is adding significant pressure’Opens in new window ]6. Outside of mortgages or rent, groceries are the next biggest expense for households. While single-person households do spend less than households made up of couples, the former do not spend half that amount, as you might expect. Given the spike in inflation over the last couple of years, we reckon a typical Irish couple is spending about €150 a week on groceries. A single person will certainly spend less, but they will not spend as little as €75 a week, and we have seen estimates that suggest a single person might spend about 75 per cent of what a couple spends. This means a single person can expect to spend €112.50 a week, or €37.50 more than each of those in a couple every week. 7. When it comes to taxation, it is also financially more lucrative to be part of a couple. As it stands, Irish workers only start to pay the top rate of 40 per cent of income tax on everything they earn over €44,000. That means a couple earning €44,000 each can have a household income of €88,000 without having to pay anything at the top rate of tax. For a single person to have the same gross income, they obviously need to earn the full €88,000, which would then see 44 grand taxed at the top rate. A person earning €44,000 gross will pay about €5,500 when income tax, the Universal Social Charge and PRSI are totted up, leaving them with a take-home pay of about €38,500. In the scenario where a couple are earning the same money, then, the net household income climbs to €77,000. That amount can change depending on tax credits and pension contributions and the rest but that gives you a rough idea as to how much a couple might be earning. A single person who is earning €88,000, which gives them the same household income as the couple, has to contend with a much higher tax bill, however.While a single person spends less on their flights when travelling overseas, they can end up paying through the nose for accommodationHow much higher? Well, they will pay a fairly hefty €8,800 at the lowest rate of income tax and €17,600 at the top rate. Then there is the USC and PRSI and all the rest. All told, the gross income of €88,000 becomes a net income of €58,833 which amounts to an annual tax bill of €29,167 compared to an annual tax bill of €11,000 for the couple who are bringing the same amount of money into the household, but via two earners rather than one. Then there is the fact that a married couple can transfer certain unused tax credits and rate bands between them, while a single person does not have that option. 8. After that we need a breather, so we will switch to entertainment. Couples can share the cost of everything from taxis and treats at the cinema to bottles of wine and takeout meals, where the singleton has to bear much of these costs alone, or else just not spend on them. Couples will obviously spend more on going out, when they do so, although they might be able to save a few bob by splitting a desert or a box of popcorn at the cinema. There are many different factors involved here, but if we allow for six taxis a month at a cost of say €100, it can be split by a couple, but has to be paid for alone by the single person. 9. That takes us to holidays. While a single person spends less on their flights when travelling overseas, they can end up paying through the nose for accommodation. If a room in a hotel costs €200, it might work out at €100 per person in a couple, but twice that for a single person who is not sharing. Then there is the single supplement, imposed by many tour operators and hotels because the prices of holidays advertised are based on “per person sharing”. Depending on where you go and who you book with, supplements can range from 125-200 per cent of the per-person price paid by couples. We will be conservative here and suggest a single person spends €500 more a year than each of the two people in a couple. 10. That takes us to the grave – or beyond it. Married couples can give gifts and inheritances to each other tax-free, regardless of the amount, while parents can leave their children €400,000 each over their lifetime without the child becoming liable for capital acquisitions tax (CAT). Couples who inherit larger sums have the potential, with advance planning, of sharing the benefit with their partner and reducing their tax liability – an option that is not there for a single person. Further, for single people with no children, the CAT tax-free ceiling if leaving money to brothers, sisters, nephews or nieces is just €40,000.So, where does that leave us? Well, using these numbers, a single person spends a total of €37,777 more than one person in a couple every single year. If that person stays single for just 30 years, then the total cost easily tops €1 million.Next week, we’ll tot up the cost of having children. We’re sure they’ll prove to be a bargain.