Man, where were all these lonely DC women back when I was single?

Lonely does not equal "pathologically desperate", ratner.

Hm...on the one hand, this is encouraging news for this Chicago resident.  On the other hand, statistically speaking, I should be doing a lot better than I am.  Damn you, census data!

Being newly single, I just want to know where all the desperate ones are.

This does explain why I had so little luck with women when I lived in Las Cruces.

Does this include "single" octegenarian widows?  Migrant workers?  I took a look and didn't see anything one-way or the other.  Really I'm just trying to convince myself things aren't as bad as they seem.

This bodes well for me, a single straight male.  I'm moving from Minneapolis to New York City in the fall.  From big blue circle to big red circle!  Problem two: all these loans I'll have to take out for grad school...

bone- it doesn't?!  I guess that explains why I've had so little luck with my new pickup line: "Sleep with me, I'm better than nothing."  

Anyway, if Chris Orr wants to do us a real favor, he'll post a map that shows where the easy girls are.  I've heard there's a huge dot right over bone's mom's house.

aculimic, it refers to women 25-44, I believe.  I thought of that too (aging populations are overwhelmingly female because of differential longevity).

What a predictable response from the many single male readers of TNR.  Of course, when I was a single, male TNR reader in a large red dot city I had the same feeling: Knowledge of the ratio only made me feel even more inadequate for not getting any.  Now I'm married so I can feel totally self-confident about not getting any.

aculimic, it refers to women 25-44, I believe.  I thought of that too (aging populations are overwhelmingly female because of differential longevity).

What a predictable response from the many single male readers of TNR.  Of course, when I was a single, male TNR reader in a large red dot city I had the same feeling: Knowledge of the ratio only made me feel even more inadequate for not getting any.  Now I'm married so I can feel totally self-confident about not getting any.

Has anyone overlaid this map with percentage of residents that are obese? If I remember correctly, Philly, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and most East Coast/Midwest/Southern areas are at the high end and LA, San Diego, and most West Coast areas are at the low end. Just saying, good news if you're into fatties.

adaglas, it isn't your fault the spare 10,000 some girls aren't working out for you.   You don't live that far from me, and my intense personal magnetism draws them to me, and me deep, sound-proof basement tends to keep them close.  

Okay, now I don't feel so bad.  See that fairly large blue dot northwest of Washington DC?  That's where I currently reside.

So it's the ratio of single women to single men that's to blame, not my hermit-like existence or lack of interpersonal skills!  Huzzah!

Also, someone should overlay this map with the dog/cat ratio.  I feel there will be some striking similarities.  After all, who needs a boyfriend when Mr. Snugglepaws never judges you?

rat, to answer your initial question: Thurston Hall. On one fine spring evening in 1969, with Jimi oozing from the speakers and the scent of fresh tear gas in the air, I traded my cherry for a case of the clap on, if I recall, the seventh floor.

A fair trade, in retrospect.

Hmmm.. if one were to separate out illegal immigrants from this data, the disparity would probably disappear, and most of the metro areas would be red ie tilted toward single women.

Look at the regions that are overwhelmingly male: CA, TX, FL metro areas, also Seattle and Minneapolis. The story in CA TX FL is pretty obviously a huge influx of "single" ie unaccompanied male latino immgrants.

I have no idea what the story is with Minneapolis, but Seattle's an outlier. Its employment base is overwhelmingly tilted toward high-tech-- even more so than the Bay Area. The only major employers outside tech in Seattle are Boeing, which has relocated its HQ to Chicago, and Nordstrom and Starbucks, which aren't all that big. AMZN, MS, ATT Wireless and hundreds of tech startups dominate the employment base for young singles.

In any metro region that is not heavily tilted toward high-tech employers, you'll find a preponderance of women among the single population, if only because the jobs accruing to metro regions require more education, and the college population is increasingly tilted toward women. IIUC it's getting close to 60-40 women-men.

Women in Silicon Valley have a saying: the odds are good, but the goods are odd

boneill, I doubt we're going after the same kinds of women. I for one don't try to work the petting zoos and needle exchange clinics.

Regardless of demographics, a fellow can always improve the odds if he remembers what Portishead's Beth Gibbons sang in "Glory Box":  "Give me a reason to be a woman, I just want to be a woman, it's all I want to be."  Keeping this in mind can go a long way, in my opinion.

Failing that, cash works wonders in some circumstances, as I've noted before. (To which I would add that I rarely dine out, but when I do, I don't waste time on places with drive-up windows. Give me linen and silver on the table, a quiet corner, and plenty of time to savor what I have ordered.)

Wow, nice Portishead reference, williamyard.   I miss that band.  

Of course, the song starts with her singing "I'm so tired, of playing, playing with these bow and arrows, gonna give my heart away, leave it to another girl to play," which means she is inching her way out of my target demographic.

Don't ask me how I know this, but on eHarmony and Match, women in NYC in my age bracket outnumber men 4 to 1.

4 to 1.

Life is good.

You're in luck, bone: Portishead is set to release a new album fairly soon, possibly this month.  Let's hope it sucks less than their second one.

Damn I miss the 90s: good Portishead albums, people using the term "trip-hop" unironically, the fun Clinton in office ... those were the days, man.

tkozal,

Live another 60 years or so. Women in your age bracket will outnumber men 50-1, regardless of where you live. And three-quarters of the "1" will be catheterized.

'Course, the gals'll all have different, um, topography from what they have now, which might not be your cup of tea.

tep, you really have a weird obsession with undocumented immigrants.  Do you ask for ID/green card at the beginning or the end of the date?

You didn't like "Portishead" ratner?  I thought it was really good.  Well, they've had what, a 15-yr-layoff now?  Enough time to make it good.

You or yard ever hear Beth Gibbons' individual stuff?

bone, I think this is referring to Single women, and not single girls, so your recent luck working at that daycare center doesn't count.

stgla - no "obsession" here, just a tendency toward quantitative analysis of social issues, which, when applied to US demographics, leads one inevitably toward the enormous and, so to speak, undocumented impact of tens of millions of illegal immigrants on many areas of US life.

In certain urban areas, the numbers are so large that they're one of the most important demographic factors, and yet the impact of this huge and vital part of our population is practically ignored. I've no idea why, but then again, almost everyone ignored the shadow banking sector, too, so maybe it's just an endemic feature of advanced industrial society: noise attracts attention, signals get ignored.

bone,

No I haven't--any good? Just listening to Dummy this a.m. on the 'Pod, which prompted the above. She kinda disappeared...or did she?

Tep, if you're being so analytical (emphasis on "anal") about this topic, maybe we should consider the impact of homosexual males have on these figures?  Certainly that could explain the excess of single males in certain urban locales.

bcbaird -- that would certainly be true in my neighborhood in DC, but do lesbians offset gays in this count or do lesbians settle more in suburbs (sorry to be so stereotypical but we don't have good data on this)?

tep -- I thought you were suggesting that undocumented migrants are in the statistics but not in the mating pool suggested by the graphic -- a fairly racist/classic notion that I ascribed to you maybe too automatically.  Maybe I misunderstood you and you meant it precisely the otehr way around, that they are not counted in the stats, so if they are disproportionately male, then their numbers could change the graphic.

"Mating pool"?? I said nothing about the mating pool. The graph doesn't, either. It's simply about the relative number of single males and females. I was simply offering an explanation for the huge red-blue disparity that leaps out from the graph. I don't see anything else that would explain why cities like LA and NY, which attract a single demographic that's in every other respect very similar, would have such radically different ratios. Ditto for Houston and Detroit.

bc - nice try - tee hee!

Riddle me this: so why do LA and NY diverge so sharply? Ditto for non-hip Dallas and non-hip Detroit. Hint: each of these pairs that's otherwise very similar culturally and demographically is divided when it comes to single male immigrants. Tons in the former, relatively few in the latter.

stgla - That is an excellent question.  In order to study the effect of this demographic on any particular region, I suggest that I track and observe the more attractive specimens, observing them in their domestic habitat and, if necessary, secretly filming them.

yard- (and yes, I am absolutely determined to keep hijacking this thread away from anything serious- sorry, tep: it's been a long week).   I liked it.  It is called out of season, and made with a fellow called Rustin' Man (about whom I know nothing).  It isn't that different from a lot of Portishead, but hits some distinctive notes.  And I could listen to her sing all day.  

Also, found this:

"Third" is the third studio album by the trip hop group Portishead. It will be officially released on Monday, April 28, 2008. It is their first release in 10 years, and their first studio album in 11 years. It introduces a rawer, more lo-fi production sound.

Mo' Beth Gibbons--thanks, bone!--time to fire up the ol' iTunes...

"It introduces a rawer, more lo-fi production sound."

Translation: We did it on the cheap and couldn't get it to sound good.

Maybe you's Yanks aren't completely ignorant. Pretty surprised anyone's even heard of Portishead. Then again Bone, you live in Chicago. I'd be depressed if I lived there as well, listening to Portishead.

TIP, dude, in American indie-rock circles, being a Portishead fan is like saying you love Mozart or that Casablanca is your favorite film.

Rat is right, but that doesn't mean they aren't great.   Thanks for the Euro-props, Iggy.  I feel...cultured.