Dating can be pretty tough for women in Washington, D.C., where there are just 80 single men to every 100 single women. Guys in Alaska, on the other hand? Just 100 single women per 117 single men.
Are you a single woman and looking for love? Tired of the dating pool in your area? You might find some luck switching your dating app location to Alaska, where the ratio of unmarried men to women is the highest in the country (117 available men for every 100 women to be exact).
Census Bureau data can't predict where you'll find love, but it can paint a picture of the current marriage market.
The marriage market refers to a pool of eligible candidates available to those interested in romantic partnerships, according to the Census Bureau.
"The more eligible partners in a given market, the better the chances of forging a romantic partnership or marriage," the Census Bureau wrote in a recent post. The ratio of unmarried men to women is a "critical indicator of potential mate availability," the bureau continued.
Here's what the marriage market looks like across the country:
Relationship status, defined
The Census Bureau defines single adults a little bit different than how you or I might define a relationship status.
The most recent data available shows that 46.4% of U.S. adults are single, nearly every other adult 18 or older. This rate includes divorcées, widowers, and those who have never married. Unfortunately, if you haven't defined your romantic relationship with a marriage ring, the Census does not count you as taken. Sorry, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
The Pew Research Center provides another look into the state of relationships in the U.S.: 69% of Americans said they were partnered (51% said married, 11% said living with a partner, 8% said in a committed romantic relationship), according to a 2022 from Pew Research. That leaves three in 10 Americans claiming single status.
What is the ratio of unmarried men to women across the U.S.?
Washington, D.C., has one of the lowest ratios of unmarried men to women in the U.S.: 80 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming have the highest ratios of unmarried men to women, compared to the rest of the country.
These states have the lowest ratio of unmarried men to women:
- Washington, D.C. (80 men to 100 women)
- Puerto Rico (81 men to 100 women)
- Delaware (82 men to 100 women)
- Alabama (82 men to 100 women)
- Maryland (83 men to 100 women)
Which states have the most singles?
The national rate of single adults in the U.S. is less than 50%, but the state with the highest ratio of singles is New Mexico, with 57% of adults either divorced, never married, widowed or separated. A majority of singles in New Mexico have never been married at 37%. Utah has the lowest rate of singles with only 44.7% of adults currently unmarried.
Pennsylvania is the state with the highest rate of adults who've never been married. About one in four adults in the state have never been married, according to Census data.
Relationship status of same-sex couples
Same-sex couples made up about 1.2 million households in the U.S, according to the most recent Census Bureau data. Of those homes, 740,000 same-sex couples were married and about 536,000 were unmarried.
The following had the highest rates of households with same-sex couples: Washington, D.C. at 3.7%, followed by Vermont (1.8%), Massachusetts (1.5%), and Hawaii and Oregon rounding out the top five states at 1.4%.
