While leafing through the most recent National Geographic (February 2007), I was quite startled to come across a very empirical, well-documented explanation clearly illuminating the reason why I remained single for so long during my younger days.

No, it wasn't a photo documentary on the Amazonian Ugly Stick and those of us severely beaten with it. Nor was it an article about elephantitis, scurvy, or dung beetles.

Instead, the National Geographic article was simply about demographics. Titled Singles, the short article compiles US Census data to reveal that single men outnumber single women west of the Mississippi while the opposite it true on the East Coast.

Part of the reason for this discrepancy is that 58% of college students are women and the East Coast is full of college towns. On the other hand, according to the Census Bureau, the West Coast tends to have more illegal immigrants, the majority of whom tend to be male. Of course, there are many other factors contributing to this imbalance of singles, but these two reasons tend to be the biggest factors.

So how does this tie in with my personal life? Los Angeles, where I grew up, has the highest plurality of single males in the country--40,000 more than single women. Hey, those aren't good odds, folks!

On the other hand, New York is blessed with 185,000 more single women then men. Now those are numbers I like.

Unfortunately, quantity remains the focus of the article; there is no data about quality whatsoever. I find this very odd since, east coast girls are hip I really dig those styles they wear, but I been all around this great big world, and I seen all kinds of girls, yeah, but I couldn't wait to get back in the States, back to the cutest girls in the world, I wish they all could be California girls.

Filed under: United States