'Solo Maxxing' is the new trend changing how young adults look at relationships

A huge new global survey has revealed that attitudes are drastically changing towards dating amongst younger people.

Growing up, settling down and getting married has long been considered a traditional life milestone, and while it remains a common choice, societal norms have shifted.

A new global survey, based on responses from 14,380 adults across the US, UK, Latin America, the EU, Australia, and South Africa, found that nearly half of adults aged 18 to 34 say being single feels “more peaceful” than being in a relationship.

They're calling it 'Solo Maxxing'. So why are people overwhelmingly now choosing to go solo?

The survey from MyIQ suggests that young people are increasingly going independent as a deliberate response to economic pressures, emotional burnout, and dating fatigue. And that reasoning is completely fair.

The findings suggest that Solo Maxxing forms part of a wider cultural shift in how young people think about control, emotional safety and even intimacy.

For many, single life is increasingly framed less as loneliness and more as self-protection.

More and more young people are going solo according to a report by MyIQ (Getty Stock)

What is Solo Maxxing?

Solo Maxxing is a lifestyle trend that focuses on making the most of life outside of romantic partnerships.

The appeal in this lies in more time to yourself, fewer emotional demands, financial focus and personal peace. The appeal doesn't seem to lie in isolation, but instead a sense of personal peace that 'modern dating often fails to provide'.

Sarah Meyer, Managing Director at MyIQ, said the trend reflects a change in how young adults define fulfilment and stability.

“Solo Maxxing is not simply about rejecting relationships,” Meyer said. “It reflects a broader reassessment of emotional cost. Many younger adults are no longer treating relationships as proof of stability. They are asking whether a relationship adds to their sense of safety, focus, and self-understanding, or whether it introduces instability they have worked hard to avoid.”

The survey didn't prove, however, that young people were shunning connection entirely.

Many of the people who answered the survey described their choice to Solo Maxx as a way to 'self preserve' rather than to isolate permanently.

Seemingly young adults are preferring to stay single (Getty Stock)

What is causing the decline in relationships?

The report says Solo Maxxing sits at the intersection of several pressures shaping early adulthood: economic uncertainty, digital exhaustion, self-optimisation culture, and a declining willingness to accept emotional instability as the price of partnership.

Meyer added that the trend reflects a change in the way younger adults assess compatibility, not only with partners but with the life structures relationships can create.

“The traditional assumption that fulfilment should centre on romantic partnership is weakening,” Meyer said.

“For many younger adults, emotional peace, autonomy and personal development are becoming measures of adulthood in their own right. The relationship is no longer the default destination.

"It has to prove that it belongs in the life someone is building.”