All the Single Ladies: Washington, D.C., Has the Highest Ratio of Unmarried Women to Unmarried Men

The odds of finding a potential mate in the United States were in men’s favor in 2019; there were 89.8 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau analysis.

Although the overall sex ratio for unmarried adults in the United States was about 90 men per 100 women, the 30-to-34 age group had the highest ratio at nearly 121 men to 100 women.

In this article, the unmarried population includes people age 18 and over who were never married, widowed or divorced, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Go to the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., for one of the lowest ratios of unmarried men to women: 80 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women. Head north to Alaska to find the opposite: 117 available men for every 100 women.

Ratios of unmarried men to women matter because people interested in romantic partnerships select from a pool of eligible candidates available to them, often called a “marriage market.” The more eligible partners in a given market, the better the chances of forging a romantic partnership or marriage.

Although the ratio of unmarried men to women isn’t the only factor that affects finding a mate, it is a critical indicator of potential mate availability among those interested in opposite-sex partners.

There is considerable variation in these unmarried ratios by state, age and race and Hispanic origin.

A new data visualization recently released by the Census Bureau highlights these differences and allows users to customize the data by each field of interest.

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