clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Mapping the Geography of Singlehood Across the United States

From the 10,000-foot level, mapping the locations of US singletons by geography paints a stark gender division that looks like the cartographic equivalent of a middle-school dance: boys on the west side, girls on the east. Using data from the American Community Survey, Citylab's Richard Florida collaborated with the Martin Prosperity Institute on a set of maps that plot the nation's lovelorn (or gloriously unattached), and the results do look rather unbalanced. San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles all have upwards of 20,000 more single men than women, and San Diego has 50,000 more. By contrast, New York has 230,000 more single women than men; Atlanta has 80,000 more; Philadelphia, 70,000; DC, nearly 65,000.

All of this assumes, however, that potential partners' only criterion is sex, leaving aside age, education, and, obviously, sexual orientation. Tech bros and elderly residents of the Villages—a Florida retirement community that has one of the highest ratios of single women to single men—are not exactly dying to meet each other.

Additional maps broken down by age range give a clearer picture of who's available where. In younger age groups (18-24 and 25-34), single men tend to outnumber single women all over the country, even in raging henhouses like New York. But as the population ages, single women begin to outnumber single men in most places—though, for the 35-44 age group, single men still outnumber single women in the Bay Area. That changes at age 45, when single women really begin to dominate.

· Where There Are More Single Men Than Women [CityLab]