The Singles Map

From National Geographic's February Issue.

Check out these posts on the best city for you and city-locator tools.

Comments

[Wendy]

What a fascinating map. I'm left wondering if it is really from 2007 or 1857 -- it seems like the "gold rush" out west is still attracting young males seeking their fortune.

[Michael Bindner]

Obviously this is related to the industries found in these places, not all of it creative. It would be interesting to separate out clerical workers and agricultural workers, as well as members of the military and gays.

[Michael Bindner]

Obviously this is related to the industries found in these places, not all of it creative. It would be interesting to separate out clerical workers and agricultural workers, as well as members of the military and gays.

[Richard]

My sense is there is a gender component as well. My wife who's from the Detroit area once told me that the young men leave to pursue opportunity while the young women stay home to be close to family. Also certain places specialize in certain kinds of occupations. My recent research is looking into the geography of occupations and the geography of personality types. Women and men have different occupational profiles to some degree with women over-represented in nuturing occupations which are more local and tied to place. This deserves more study for sure.

[Wendy]

As per my earlier comment, I think there are some lessons and questions from historically comparable situations. We've seen large numbers of single males flock to California before. The question now, as in past migrations is how many of them stay long term.

For example, is California simply a "right of passage" for many creative class males. They go for a few years, gain experience, make money and return home ideally with a fortune, and perhaps with a sharp eye toward marriage and family. Or, do the young males stay and become older single males. I think the gold rush lesson would be most go home or move on, but that perhaps a fresh crop is always replacing them.

If this map or statistics existed for each decade of the 20th century as well, that might be really interesting information.

[Charlotta]

Kind of fun in relation to Wendy's and Richard's comments above - we also have this gender effect in Sweden - but working in the opposite direction. Young women migrate to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, leaving the young men behind at home. In the northen parts of Sweden they now have "match-making trips" - sending in young women from Russia by bus to the "starving" Swedish men :-), hoping to to get some new families in the sparsly populated areas. While in the cities there are tons of Brigit Jones...

[Wendy]

What's really ironic is that many young men cite the availability of "hot California babes" as a reason to try living in LA or San Diego for a while.

Looks like their chances of getting a date might be better in Chicago or Philadelphia.

[pollster]

Where's the irony in that? Having lived in the midwest as well as California, the "Hot California babes" are not just a myth. If they're worth it, what's wrong with a little competition?

[Richard]

I met my wife when she was living in a suburb of Detroit. I was shocked - and I mean shocked - at the differences between men and women. Not just physical either - in terms of energy and intelligence. She had a simple explanation which I've shared here before. The men go off to find opportunity. A greater share of women stay home for family reasons.

[Richard]

Charlotta - I just read your comments. This is really interesting. Can you elaborate on what you think might be driving the difference between Sweden and the US....?

[Wendy]

Charlotta and Richard: Maybe we have this all wrong and Charlotta's observation for Sweden does fit 21st century USA. Maybe it's the women from California and Seattle going to New York, Chicago and Philadelphia that's creating the imbalance? Or, at least maybe that's part of the story we're missing. It may be a combination of West coast women heading east and men heading west.

Also, it could be that women are leaving hinterlands around Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. more than men and heading to the nearby hub city. This too, might be more like Sweden.

[MPS]

Hmmm - random thought. Is this trend reflected in the two hit HBO shows, "Sex and the City" and "Entourage"? I don't know much about the supposed origins of the women in "Sex and the City", (except that the Charlotte character is from blue-blood Connecticut), but it takes place at the hub of the #1 female surplus region (New York). Regardless, they all seem to be from East Coast-ish locations to begin with. Perhaps their frustrations are a reflection of the large single female surplus.

"Entourage", on the other hand, is explicitly about young men from Queens, NY migrating to Hollywood, the hub of the #1 male surplus region (LA), and I believe is based on Boston native's Mark Wahlberg's experience.

I agree that the west still holds a "Gold Rush" mentality for young men, and on top of the "Hot Babe" and other beach/surfer dude-oriented aspect of it all, you have the whole Silicon Valley Type-A nerd culture to draw young men from the East. I think it's also part of the West being the least rooted part of the nation. A young single male who wants to totally throw off his familial and social bonds for more cosmic pursuits would probably like the West better.

I'm not so sure what Texas holds for these young men, but it could be a combination of big oil in Houston, big funkiness in Austin, and just plain big money in Dallas. San Antonio seems to not joined this club yet.

I'm surprised the Southeast is such a female-surplus region, but I supposed their young men migrate West, too. Maybe it's the South's sometimes exessive "rootedness" (and honestly not all that different from other areas east of the Mississippi) that pushes the most ambitious young men to flee west (and perhaps not even Atlanta appeals to them). The exceptions seem to be Myrtle Beach, SC and inexplicably Hickory, NC.

And what accounts for the surplus single men in Southwest Florida and on Florida's East Coast between Jacksonville and Miami? Real estate and developer folks? Does Myrtle Beach fall in that category?

I'm also reminded of my cousin sister and my best friend, who are married to each other. My cousin ideally would want to live in Manhattan. My best friend would ideally want to live in a dry, cool western location (he loved Flagstaff, AZ, for example). Is there maybe something about females that prefers humidity? When my wife and I have traveled to San Diego, Arizona, or Vegas, I've loved the climate, and while she loved it in an abstract sense, she somehow always got sick.

Also, I've often heard of men on either coast, but probably particularly the West Coast, looking back east, especially the midwest, to settle down with a nice girl-next-door and start a family. Especially if that's where they came from.

[DMC]

As a young male with a degree in computer science it seems like a clear cut case of where the technology and ultimately the highest monetary gain exists. California has long been the hub for software/hardware revolutions, Seattle has grown to be a huge industry standard, not just because of Microsoft, but because of the many Aeronautical/mechanical manufacturing/engineering opportunities. The same is true of central Arizona and of Austin, Houston and Dallas. All of those area's have seen enormous growth in both electrical engineering and software related fields in the last 10 to 15 years.

[Hot Babe Magnet]

I think the women are more picky on the east coast, and the men are more picky on the west coast...

[Nathan]

as a 32 year old single male Manhattanite, I can explain NY pretty easily. the fashion, PR, design, advertising and publishing industries are all centered here and are all female-dominated...especially at the entry level.

as for east coast women being pickier...not really...the massive female surplus in NY..has definitely changed the dating paradigm compared to other places I've lived. men get away with far more here due to their superior market power (in terms fo shortage). (it's also the one place where as a male attorney you can routinely date women making far more than you.)

[chris]

would be interesting to see the straight/gay filter on top of this.

found this on feedmashr.com

[JT]

I think the high concentration of single males out West has a lot to do with immigrant laborers from Latin America and Asia (tech workers), who are predominantly male.

[TheChrispy]

I'm a single male who moved to San Francisco half a year ago. Coming from Chicago, I can speak with personal conviction to the effects of this graph.

When I was in Chicago, I felt like a stud. It was never long for me between hookups and dates. Women weren't necessarily throwing themselves at me, but at the same time, the action I got made me feel desirable, attractive, and successful.

Fast forward half a year, where I haven't gotten laid a single time. I moved out here for the new tech boom, jumping head-first into the gold-rush mentality that's driving so many other young single men out here as well.

When I'm hanging out with friends, often times in a large room with few if any women, we routinely turn to the topic of how the dating scene sucks. Most of my guy friends are single, and some haven't had action in months or years.

The pool of women, eligible or otherwise, are among the least hot I've seen in any city this size. And it doesn't seem to matter, because they still get treated like royalty. One of my female friends who's also new to the city says that she's never received so much attention from men in her life. Great news if you're a chick, no so much if you're a dude.

Perhaps this explains why most online dating sites got started in Silicon Valley.

[T]

Maybe it's more insidious, Lots of the female "excess" is in cities with lots of black people. Since a black man has a better (statistically) chance of going to jail than to college, it leaves lots of excess female population.

LA and the Southwest gets many first wave(young male and likely illegal) immigrants.

[Shake]

How about an interactive one? www.datesnearby.net

[Jason]

Wonderful... again, I'm in a sausage fest situation again. Stupid Phoenix. I could have moved somewhere!

[Jayson Barclay]

I'm not surprised socal is skewed more male, there are a lot of military bases there. I'm also not surprised to see all the places I've ever lived are total sausage fests. I'm moving to be with the ladies.

[Cream of Sum Yung Guy]

The map is backward. I wish they all could be California girls? Dumbass.

[gondaba]

i had no idea i was surrounded by so many desperately lonely women.

[Foreign Language Blog]

The west looks like a giant sausage fest.