Last week I spoke with Adam DuVander at BestPlaces.net about going solo in the US.
Last month, the New York Times published the results of their analysis stating that 51% of U.S. women now live without a spouse. However, Sperling’s BestPlaces discovered this might not be the whole story.
The New York Times used the latest demographics from the Census Bureau, including women above age fourteen who were unmarried or separated. Indeed, according to a University of Texas survey, the average age of women at their first marriage is 26.
Sperling’s firm looked at similar Census data, but restricted its analysis to single, widowed, and divorced women age 25-64. Without this cap on the age range, places with higher concentrations of elderly people would show a misleading number of single women.
Sperling’s conclusion is significantly different than the New York Times. In the 379 metro areas nationwide, 34% of women 25-64 are single.
Despite all the attention to this new milestone for single women, the difference between the number of single men and women is not as great as one might think. Nationally, 32% of men are single.
