[shutupalready]

Notice that there are many more males than females in the USA for in the age bracket when relationships form. The ratio is 1.07 (.73/.68 = 1.07) for 19 year olds. It's incredibly high and I wonder why that is?

Think about the implication: No matter what those 107 guys do there will be only enough girlfriends/wives/lovers for 100 hundred of them. The ratio reverses only after age 45.

This might explain the extraordinary effort by men to meet women in the U.S. as compared to some other countries and earlier times in U.S. history. The dating sites, the PUA courses, and even Zuckerberg's original motive for Facebook. The competition is super intense because it's a zero sum game. For 7% of men it's futile. (I'm simplifying by ignoring 19 year olds with 45 year old girlfriends, gays relationships, and many other factors.)

Most people know that women outnumber men overall, but are unaware that the statistics for young people are reversed.

[dragonwriter]

Relationships between people that aren't the same age aren't exactly unheard of, and exclusive monogamy isn't exactly an ironclad rule among humans, so two key assumptions underlying your conclusion seem to be invalid.

[aaronharnly]

Interesting point.

The natural sex ratio at birth is estimated at 1.06, so that ratio of males to females for young Americans is not particularly out of expectation.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio

I couldn't readily find numbers, but I would speculate that there may also be more male than female immigrants at younger ages.

[Houshalter]

Perhaps young men are more likely to immigrate than women? I believe I read somewhere Toxoplasma gondii causes higher birth percentage of males. Also the birth rate is naturally skewed. And then there are selective abortions, and less war to kill off all the young men.

[logicchains]

I've seen some statistics (not sure about their validity) stating that around 10% of the population are gay/bisexual, so if this were the case then having 7% more males than females wouldn't necessarily be a problem.

[seanmcdirmid]

Unless 10% of females are also gay/bisexual, then it all cancels out. Also, gender disparities could affect the gay/bisexual communities just as much as the straight community.

[logicchains]

That's true. Well at least the imbalance is only in a single age group, not for instance like in China where selective abortions have lead to a nationwide gender gap[1].

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific...

[seanmcdirmid]

Dating was actually easier for me in china, and my now Chinese wife says is still is sort of hard for girls to find the right guys especially at the higher end of the socioeconomic spectrum. It's complicated.

[logicchains]

I lived in China for a couple of years and found the same, but I don't think our experiences would be representative of those of the average mainland Chinese male.

[seanmcdirmid]

Average no, upper class definitely.