More Baby Boomers are living alone. One reason why: ‘gray divorce’

It’s been about a decade since Brown’s research popularized the term “gray divorce” to describe this phenomenon – something that used to be a rarity, but now has become much more common. They dubbed it “the gray divorce revolution.”And it’s still going strong, both for celebrities and everyday people. Rather than “gray divorce,” Myres says she prefers the term “silver splitters,” because it also alludes to the silver lining of starting fresh, no matter how old you are. Financial difficulties after “gray divorce” are a problem Brown says she and other researchers have been studying, too. In the first couple of years after a “gray divorce,” Brown says, about 50% of people end up living alone.