There is no such thing as a best city for single people

An online trend that always confused me? All of those articles with headlines like, “The Top 10 Best Cities For Single People.” What does that even mean? You mean there are just people waiting around to sweep you off your feet in these particular cities? How do you even calculate that? Something smelled fishy there.

Turns out Fusion did a little recon and all of those articles are just as fishy as I’d suspected, because (for better or for worse) there is no such thing as a “best city for single people.”

Let’s take a look at the facts, shall we?

Fact #1: There is approximately the same percentage of 18-34 year olds in most U.S. cities.

In Fusion’s deep dive, they figured this out for us. It’s not like any one particular city is party central. According to data from the Census’ American Community Survey, the percentage of 18-34 year olds hovers right around 25% for 21 major U.S. cities.

Fact #2: There is also approximately the same percentage of married millennials in said cities.

Ok, maybe there’s not a city where there are significantly more young hotties, but there’s gotta be a city with more single people . . . right? Or maybe a city with way more married people, which means that city is working out for SOME people!

Not really, according to the Census; all cities are pretty much the same in that department, too.

Fact #3: Some of the facts about these “top cities” are too good to be true.

But those articles seem so legit, you may be thinking. What about Clarksville, Tennessee, with such a high male-to-female ratio?

Sorry . . . that one’s too good to be true. As our friends over at Fusion have pointed out, Clarksville, which was named the top city for single women due to its high ratio of employed men to women (145 to 100), is next to Fort Campbell, “home to the 101st Airborne Division, which pushes its employed male-to-female ratio into the stratosphere. So while there may be more available men in theory, they don’t have a typical 9-to-5 job.” Sad face.

According to Fusion, the majority of the “top cities” are next to military bases and installations, which skews the numbers.

Sorry, single ladies — it’s not where you are that will determine if you find love. That myth has been debunked. But let’s be real — why should we worry about that anyway? Should we really be moving to another city in the hopes of finding romance? I say no. Let’s focus on being fabulous, powerful women, and we’ll let love come to us.

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