Go West, Young Woman
One of my favorite blog finds of late is Strange Maps. From that source, comes this map guaranteed to bring fear to the heart of every thirty-something Manhattan single woman:
My guess is that a subtitle to the graph in southwestern cities is "single men immigrate more than single women." Note the scale really under-estimates the situation in NY, since the scale is capped at 40,000. If they had extended the scale, NY would be probably be a 2-inch diameter circle.
Update: Don't miss the shorter version of my climate paper, which I call the 60-second climate skeptic.
Brandon Berg:
More evidence that I need to get out of Seattle.
On the other hand, New York is huge. A surplus of 185,000 women in the New York metropolitan area is...what? 1% of the population? A map showing the differences as a percentage of population (and throwing out elderly widows) would be more informative.
July 10, 2007, 11:01 amKevin:
Wow. Also - what the hell? Your idea of where the extra men here in LA came from seems sound, but I don't think the northeast corridor got a lot of extra women via immigration - where did their men go?
July 10, 2007, 11:03 amAnon E. Mouse:
Women are a majority of the general population -- about 50.7%.* Mainly due to longer lifespan, IIRC. So NYC is close to what you'd expect if men and women were randomly spread across the country.
The heavy-male areas are quite an aberration, I think.
*http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
July 10, 2007, 12:36 pmAnon E. Mouse:
one more thing -- the graph/map is kinda misleading by using raw numbers. NYC is close to normal, but looks spectacular, and many medium-sized blue dots are spectacular, but elicit a yawn at best.
And it should be indexed to 50.7% women => no dot at all.
July 10, 2007, 12:43 pmCraig:
The Southwest is also where people sneak across the border from Mexico. I suspect most of them are men, and a good % of the men are single.
July 10, 2007, 12:48 pmJody:
Actually the ratio in NYC is 90:110 M:F. See Table 4 here.
July 10, 2007, 6:12 pmAnon E. Mouse:
Jody,
That'd be 90:100 M:F on Table 4, which is rougly 47.4% male, 52.6% female. But yes, you're right. This doesn't seem to match what the chart above says, which lumps not just NYC, but "NY-NJ-CT" urban area, and shows 185k more women than men -- I was taking a SWAG that the total population of the urban area was about 20M.
Chart 4 only includes NYC, and shows 400k more men in the 8M population. Perhaps including the 'burbs numerically dilutes and partially compensates for whatever is going on in NYC proper.
But the inescapable conclusion is that there's 215k more men than women in the 'burbs around NYC. Happiness is a just short commute away?
Also note that young single men outnumber young single women nationwide in every category (until the 35-44 bracket). So no more whining from the Sex in the City demographic -- there's more men than women in your dating age range.
Lonely old widows are going to stay lonely, though.....
//This also explains the lack of dates during my teenage years into young adulthood (yeah, that was the problem).//
July 11, 2007, 5:58 ammstrbass2000:
maybe the big blue dot state are that way because of all the illegals crossing over the borders ,most are single and male that do the crossings
california,texas,arizona
July 12, 2007, 1:07 pmAdam Maas:
Note that a lot of the areas heavy in single men are either popular in the extreme sports world (Mountain Biking, surfing, snowboarding) or are heavy into technology-based industry, both of which are a huge draw to single men.
July 12, 2007, 1:14 pmSnarkosaur:
Notice a big blue circle around San Fran. How many of these single men and women are straight?
July 12, 2007, 1:21 pmAnonymous:
Many of the large single-women cities have a large minority population and those have high welfare rates. Correlation?
July 12, 2007, 1:21 pmyetanotherjohn:
Go west young woman.
July 12, 2007, 1:30 pmRocketeer:
Jody, Craig,
Maybe I misunderstand, but aren't you comparing apples to oranges looking at that table compared to the map? The M:F ratio that you refer to may indeed be dramtically different than the singleM:F ratio, which is depicted on the map, right?
July 12, 2007, 1:31 pmAl Maviva:
Yeah, sure, the ratio of men may outnumber women in the west, but just like in any city in the east, you ask a single woman what it's like, she'll tell you 1) all the good ones are taken or gay; and, 2) she never meets anybody.
July 12, 2007, 1:34 pmJim Rockford:
Single men are generally aware of the disparity, so why aren't single men rushing into NYC?
The explanation can be seen in how women in East Germany fled, leaving on average 25% fewer women than men (18-34), but in some areas as many as 100 men to 40 women age 18-34. Women who are attractive can always find jobs, while men require skills and often high levels of them to find work in other areas. Employers largely say no to East German men because they feel they have lesser skills and cost more than low-cost immigrants from say Bulgaria or elsewhere.
Women in NYC 18-34 are generally well mapped to Sex and the City, i.e. attractive women seeking Mr. Big. There is no use for single men to move there unless they have a lot wealth/status. What's happening world-wide is that women with lots of economic freedom are free to pursue the highest status man they can. Since men judge not on status but physical attractiveness, it's a pretty good deal for women, overall. Even being a part-time mistress to a powerful man means more than being married/whatever to an ordinary one. More money, more power, more connections. Any children get more.
Not a good deal for men though. By definition a large group of them will simply miss out and be disruptive. They certainly won't be invested in a lot of society's demands. In East Germany the mass bachelors join the Neo-Nazis.
July 12, 2007, 1:35 pmtsmith:
Of course it's not the whole story, but one thing this map seems to show is that Hispanics tend to marry, while Blacks do not.
July 12, 2007, 2:11 pmNick:
Interesting. I have a friend who just moved from Milwaukee to San Francisco, and said that the ratio in SF is 4 single women to 1 man, but this graphic would seem to counter that. However, he also said that it was 4 heterosexual women to 1 heterosexual man...
I wonder how the colors were to change if that were taken into account.
July 12, 2007, 2:25 pmpdavis:
The map simply shows that lesbians go to Bo-Wash, gay men go to the left coast.
July 12, 2007, 2:48 pmEric:
I can attest to the SoCal ratios. I looked on match.com and counted the women who met my criteria for age, faith, body style, income, education, all the characteristics I also have and am looking for as was stunned to see it was anywhere from 4.5:1 to 3.5:1 in the womens' favor. Good luck guys.
July 12, 2007, 2:52 pmJames:
I think Jim Rockford is on the money here. We are seeing a gradual replacement of monogamy with (de facto) polygamy in the West. The average woman would rather be the consort of a high status male than the spouse of a low status one. The long term results of this sort of social change are going to be huge, and probably not good.
July 12, 2007, 2:55 pmNew to SF:
I just moved to San Francisco, the blue dot is a bit misleading. It's great being a straight guy in this city -- the straight women are attractive, and you're the unique commodity!
Oh, crap, I shouldn't have publicly disclosed that.....
July 12, 2007, 3:03 pmMarkD:
Those red dots in Detroit, Flint, and the Tri-City area (the two red dots immediately north of Detroit) are inconsistent with my personal observations of the region (which, along with the weather and economy, is why I finally left).
July 12, 2007, 3:06 pmAnonymous:
"New to SF" is right: most heavily male areas are large concentrations of gay males (as Seinfeld said, not that there's anything wrong with that). For example, males greatly outnumber females in the heavily-gay city of West Wollywood, which is 55% male and 45% female.
So these studies are fun, but not really useful.
July 12, 2007, 3:24 pmQwinn:
"Maybe I misunderstand, but aren't you comparing apples to oranges looking at that table compared to the map? The M:F ratio that you refer to may indeed be dramtically different than the singleM:F ratio, which is depicted on the map, right?"
Well, since there really aren't -large- numbers of homosexual married couples or of polygamous marriages, one can rationally presume that human beings are generally only being subtracted from the "single" pool one man and one woman at a time.
Qwinn
July 12, 2007, 3:27 pmPaul A'Barge:
wow. Look at San Antonio! Babes galore. And, they pretty much all have that latin, pent-up, been-to-one-too-many-masses energy.
Yippie Kai Yai Yay, !
July 12, 2007, 3:29 pmJTHC2007:
I live in San Francisco, and I would say that the few comments here agree with the impressions of my single female friends--there are actually far fewer single (heterosexual) men than the graph would suggest. It seems to me that every large city in the country has a surplus of single women and a scarcity of single (heterosexual, eligible) bachelors.
July 12, 2007, 3:42 pmDan:
"It seems to me that every large city in the country has a surplus of single women and a scarcity of single (heterosexual, eligible) bachelors."
Having lived in several of the large cites, I must say that the women who live there do not behave as if there is a shortage of men. If anything the opposite is the case. NYC women seem to actively dislke all men on sight. Which makes it all the funnier that they then complain that they can't find a good man!
July 12, 2007, 3:55 pmRKV:
"women seem to actively dislike all men." Some women are going to be spinsters if they don't get their heads on right.
July 12, 2007, 4:45 pmBrian:
fascinated by the people counting illegals in california. does everybody really think the illegals are contributing to polls?
also, a friend of mine pointed out that the male/female ratio in vancouver is something like 8:1 females over males. doormen have to make sure there are enough guys in the bars and keep out the women.
July 12, 2007, 5:05 pmSarah:
Single women who want to marry high-status men ought to go live in the places where the graduate schools are dominated by men. Mormon women looking for a marriage get a really good deal out of going to Provo, UT, because there are gazillions of single young men who've come back from their missions and can't imagine going anywhere but BYU (this is why all the singles' stuff in Ohio is dominated by women.) Higher levels of education are still correlating with higher rates of marriage, as far as I remember; if all the colleges in New Mexico are looking at 60/40 male/female ratios, that's where you should go.
Note: you have to be careful with those stats, too. BYU's law school is something approaching 75% male, but the overwhelming majority of their students are already married. But I bet that places like, say, the University of Missouri (55 to 45) are good opportunities (William and Mary, in Virginia, is 53/47; Pepperdine's is nearly 50/50.) You could also apply for an MBA -- most programs are at better than 60/40, which makes women just about rare enough that everyone will at least know you by sight.
Oh... and "go west, young woman" has been a standard marriage/mating strategy in the US since at least the middle of the 19th century. Women have been losing ground, though -- back in the day, unless you were Chinese, going "west" from your home meant entering areas where the ratios were more like 10 to 1. And the issue has always been a matter of negotiating freedom versus personal power and sexual liberation versus, at least 100 or so years ago in the American west, actual poverty. Prostitutes, sailors, gold miners, etc. had a lot more fun and money than farmers and their wives; the Sex in the City type girls have more money and fun than my mom does. Of course, my mom does have kids she likes spending time with, and near total personal security...
July 12, 2007, 5:46 pmLenS:
"Some women are going to be spinsters if they don't get their heads on right."
No problem. Those areas are heavily Democratic, so once they welcome their new Islamic overlords, the pre-menopausal one's will have a master/rapist assigned to each of them.
July 12, 2007, 5:59 pmJim Rockford:
"NYC women seem to actively dislke all men on sight."
Dan, according to the straight young women I know, what this reaction is really is an instant rejection based on perceived status that they adopt to save them hassles. If you are an attractive young woman you get hit on a LOT (even if you're married and wearing your ring). So any man you'll reject anyway, you radiate hostility so they leave you alone (and just as importantly don't block their access to the high-status man they want). Joe Average even if he's fairly good looking and decent status will get the hostile reception. A Mr. Big though will get radically different treatment. This is particularly true in big cities where women are there for status themselves and guys with status.
Thanks James. Yes I think there will be definitely large changes to society. None of them good from my view.
July 12, 2007, 7:34 pmrosignol:
also, a friend of mine pointed out that the male/female ratio in vancouver is something like 8:1 females over males.
Are you talking about Vancouver, WA, or Vancouver, BC?
July 12, 2007, 8:59 pmCJ:
"...also, a friend of mine pointed out that the male/female ratio in vancouver is something like 8:1 females over males. doormen have to make sure there are enough guys in the bars and keep out the women."
Are you referring to Vancouver, Washington, across the river from Portland, Oregon? If you are referring to Vancouver, Canada, where I live, then your friend is giving you bad information. There certainly are a lot of single women living in downtown and the Kitsilano district, and they often display the high-status-man-hunting behavior described by other posters, but bar and club doormen absolutely do not need to take any drastic measures to balance gender ratios by keeping out women.
Except maybe for gay bars.
July 12, 2007, 9:11 pmFz:
An early commenter nailed it: the dots are too damn big. To make any sense of this map, it has to be way more granular, so one could see the shades from blue through purple to red, perhaps at county resolution instead of huge meaningless circles hovering over the urban areas.
Maybe I'm just a country mouse and all, but there are many other variables than Bicoastal-vs-Flyover Country, and that map doesn't even hint at them.
That big hit over Miami? Snowbirds, with females lasting longer than males. Don't move there to find a sugar mama unless you're willing to help her change her Depends.
I wish I had a home license of ArcInfo to take a whack at this question. Can't get away with this stuff at work.
July 12, 2007, 9:27 pmFz:
An early commenter nailed it: the dots are too damn big. To make any sense of this map, it has to be way more granular, so one could see the shades from blue through purple to red, perhaps at county resolution instead of huge meaningless circles hovering over the urban areas.
Maybe I'm just a country mouse and all, but there are many other variables than Bicoastal-vs-Flyover Country, and that map doesn't even hint at them.
That big hit over Miami? Snowbirds, with females lasting longer than males. Don't move there to find a sugar mama unless you're willing to help her change her Depends.
I wish I had a home license of ArcInfo to take a whack at this question. Can't get away with this stuff at work.
July 12, 2007, 9:28 pmDan:
Approaching this from the male standpoint, I'd say the best places to be are the smaller towns and cities. My experience is that women there are far more approachable, and that they will even approach you. Women in the big cities, even places with a supposed shortage of men, tend to be downright unfriendly by comparison. I could tell you stories ...
Maybe some female readers can chip in with small town vs big city thoughts. I can't imagine NY and Chicago are a blast from the womans side either. Not if how often they smile is any indication.
July 12, 2007, 10:06 pmLmE:
There are several valid points here, with some exception to the racist Muslim comment.
My wife and I moved just outside Boulder going on six years ago and both work in Denver. She is better than 5 years younger than me and has many friends in the 30-40 range. These are thoughts based on some truly crazy stories I've heard second hand.
Yes beautiful women look for status but there are plenty of men that get around that quite easily due to layed back attitudes and plenty of money being used to buy recreation time versus maseratis. In other words image doesn't matter that much. Women will fall for good looking men with quick tongues even if it is only casual.
There are a lot more single women in the Denver area than the map suggests and maybe the perception is why they all call Denver Menver. A lot of those women are very very lonely which suggests there will be social issues down the road.
Even though the muslim comment is repulsive there is some truth to it. With the DNC coming next year there are a lot of those red dots from Washington migrating in for planning etc. and many of them have really interesting stories which suggests more in the way weird happenings. There are a lot of gay men in Washington and a lot of straight women dating them. She and I have watched Colorado get more liberal since we've been here which we don't mind one bit. But her friends keep telling these stories about men finally admitting they are gay and breaking up as well as having the same thing happen to them in Washington. No doubt about the fact that the men were so called players in the communities and the women were attracted to that even though their friends keep saying he's gay, he's gay, he's gay. They just don't listen because they like going to power parties. She is hearing more and more of this as time goes on.
On California that is where we moved from and a lot of folks are doing the same. The comments above are spot on but the status issue is nowhere near what it seems to be in Denver or supposedly Washington. Women seem to have gay radar and everyone gets along just fine. There are plenty of extremely successful intelligent women who would rather have a nice man that they can go biking with and sleep comfortably with instead of someone who knows the scene mostly because all the smart women work in the scene and can't wait to get out of it on Friday. The economy is really going out there with the high tech return and it isn't doing near as well here. The conclusion is that a truly confident women doesn't really care about the status because it is more of a pain to her and she would happily bring home the bacon if a great man would take care of the baby, clean and maybe write a book or something.
Its just different attitudes depending on where you are. Sorry about the spelling and punctuation but we drank a bottle and a half of chard over dinner. Bye.
July 12, 2007, 10:11 pmDiego:
Another issue single women are dealing with is the m/f ratios of students graduating from college. Women now represent a significant majority of the people graduating from college each year. This means they will find it difficult to find single men as educated as they are. White collar women are also more reluctant than white collar men to date blue collar. This problem will get worse and worse over the next 10-20 years.
July 13, 2007, 1:00 amBald Eagle:
Yes, New York City has a lot more single women.
The down side: most of those single women are bitter, man-hating, feminists. Go figure.
July 13, 2007, 5:05 amJohn:
"Women now represent a significant majority of the people graduating from college each year. This means they will find it difficult to find single men as educated as they are. White collar women are also more reluctant than white collar men to date blue collar."
I have to say that some of the all time stupidest people I've met have had a college education. It's not all it is cracked up to be.
That aside, I think you are making the same "status" argument that several other commenters have made in this thread. Women increasingly turn up their noses at blue collar men.
July 13, 2007, 2:06 pmDr. Kenneth Noisewater:
Yes, New York City has a lot more single women.
The down side: most of those single women are bitter, man-hating, feminists. Go figure.
Cause? I'd like you to meet my good friend Effect over here...
July 14, 2007, 10:15 amesteban:
does anyone have info on the male to female ratios in the city of vancouver?
June 24, 2008, 12:26 pm