More Unmarried Women Than Men In U.S.: Here Are Some Of The Reasons

ACROSS AMERICA — The Census Bureau dished on what’s called the “marriage market” in a new report this week that shows men have better overall odds than women of marrying.

Nationwide in 2019, there were 89.8 umarried men for every 100 unmarried women, according to the analysis.

The ratios matter because people interested in opposite-sex romantic partnerships have a fairly finite pool of eligible candidates within geographic marriage markets, the Census Bureau said in a news release.

“The more eligible partners in a given market, the better chances of forging a romantic partnership or marriage,” the agency said.

The lowest ratio was in Washington, D.C., with 80 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women. Puerto Rico, Delaware, Alabama and Maryland also are hot marriage markets for men.

Alaska had the highest ratio, with 117 available men for 100 women. North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota and Colorado are also good places for women interested in marriage.

Differences in local employment opportunities can also influence the marriage market, the Census Bureau said. States with large industries that employ more men or women, for example strong mining, oil or construction industries, can tilt ratios one direction or the other. States with large military populations may tilt the odds of finding a mate toward women, since the majority of active duty military are men.

“This may be why a state like Alaska, dominated by industries that tend to employ mainly men, had among the highest unmarried sex ratios for the 18-to-24, 45-to-54, and 55-and-over age groups,” the release said.

Age matters, too. Among unmarried adults, there were nearly 121 men to 100 women, which the Census Bureau said is likely due to men having a higher median age at first marriage (30.1) than women (28.2).

“In other words, because men typically marry later, on average, there are more of them available to marry at younger ages,” the Census Bureau said.

The pattern reverses at older ages, likely driven by a shorter life expectancy for men than women that produces disproportionately high counts of unmarried older women, the agency said. The lowest unmarried men to women ratio was among people 55 and older, with about 57 men for every 100 women.

The Census Bureau said its comparison of ratios by race and Hispanic origin revealed more complexity. Racial and ethnic intermarriage and cohabitation are becoming more common nationwide, but most adults still tend to marry within their racial and ethnic group. A contributing factor to the variation is that among race and Hispanic origin groups, the population is not evenly distributed across states, the agency said.

Alaska had the lowest ratio of unmarried Black or African American men to women at 180 to 100. In the Asian population, there were about 52 unmarried men for every 100 women.