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by dragonwriter 3011 days ago
> there are more single men in San Jose than in the entire state of Alaska:

There are a time and a half as many people in San Jose as in the entire state of Alaska, so there being more single men in San Jose than Alaska says nothing.

1 comments

Fair enough, here's a more useful statistic from the article:

There are 134 single men for every 100 single women in San Jose.

That means that even in the unrealistic best-case scenario that all the available single men find a perfect female match, then out of every 100 single men, 27 will still have no partners left to date.

> That means that even in the unrealistic best-case scenario that all the available single men find a perfect female match, then out of every 100 single men, 27 will still have no partners left to date.

Assuming a closed dating pool (both geographically limited and no turnover over time), and all single people of both genders both looking for a partner and exclusively heterosexual, sure.

Of course, all of those assumptions are very false, so it means nothing of the sort.

> Assuming a closed dating pool (both geographically limited and no turnover over time)

I addressed both of those in my post:

1. Yes, you can theoretically date women in San Francisco if you live in San Jose. No, it will not be pretty. You will end up commuting for hours each way. Also, the ratio is bad in the whole Bay area, not just in San Jose. So even if you're willing to spend hours on the 101 every time you want to see you partner, it's not like it's easy to find dates on the 101.

2. There is turnover over time. The Bay and especially SF keeps getting less affordable for anyone except techies. As a result, mostly male techies move in, and more women leave. So it's not static - it's getting worse.

3. Of course there are some gay men and women, but the majority of men are still heterosexual. So out of these 27 men, maybe a couple would be gay. Balance that against a 5-6 gay women, and it's a wash.

Saying a huge 100/134 gender imbalance "means nothing" is extremely inaccurate.