Dating is a marketplace, and like in any market, numbers are everything. Small differences in gender ratios can make a huge difference for success in your romantic life. If you’re doing well in dating or if you’re doing poorly, your location could explain it, because dating is a numbers game. Accordingly, in this article we will use the figures for the 18-to-34 age range.
We’re measuring the cities proper, not including the greater metro areas, because living in the suburbs is a bad idea in the first place if you’re a single man looking to date a woman. So let’s take a look at the best cities for single men in the USA.
Chicago
Chicago is the forgotten middle child of the country. It’s the big one between the coasts… but what is it? Well, it’s a walkable legacy city with snow, so it’s not like LA. It’s humble and affordable, so it’s not New York. It’s a large, generic, Yankee city with a sort of working-class feel to it.
The operative words here are “large,” “affordable,” and “walkable.” Chicago has big-city amenities and a good job market, it’s very affordable, and it feels like a classic Northern city that would usually be incredibly expensive. The catch, you ask? No catch… though it’s technically in the Midwest.
The other good news is that Chicago has a good dating market : there are 1.03 young women for every young man.
Types of girls:
- Midwesterner to whom Chicago is her NYC
- Basic bitch sports-fan
Takeaway: A real, big city without the real-city price tag.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a relaxed city, both in terms of culture and public-safety enforcement. You get big-city amenities and big-city problems, but with that low-key small-town feel. There’s also an abundance of some of the best natural beauty in the United States in every direction.
Portland makes the cut for the best for one reason: it’s the only West Coast city with a favorable gender ratio for men – 1.03 young women for every young man.
Types of girl:
- Alt girls
- Lower-middle class stoner weeb
Takeaway: A surprisingly “white-trash” city, but in a good way.
Providence
Providence is the smallest city on this list, but the metro area is still considerable at 1.6 million people, the second-largest in New England. Being a northeastern city, it’s quite walkable and charming.
The city is famous for having a lot of white ethnics, notably including Portuguese people – a rare find! It’s also home to the Ivy League school Brown University.
Perhaps thanks to its status as a center of education, Providence’s gender ratio is 1.04 young women for every young man.
Types of girl:
- New England cracker
- Brown University student
- Portuguese
Takeway: A compact New England town that’s full of character.
New York
The Big Apple! This is truly the city to be in if you need cosmopolitan energy, urban vitality, and a diversity of lifestyles and life-paths. You can rub shoulders with writers, accidentally wander into a warehouse hip-hop show, or have a career in big finance.
There are also tons of women: New York has 1.06 young women for every young man.
Girl type:
- Stylish, cosmopolitan, high-maintenance
- Saw a TV show set in New York and based her life around it
Takeaway: You can find everything here, really, including almost every type of girl. It’s expensive and people are often up their own ass – with some justification for it.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is what would happen if you averaged out the qualities of eastern cities like Boston, DC, Pittsburgh, and New York. This results in it being a walkable, affordable, generic (in a good way) legacy city, kinda like Chicago. Unlike Chicago, it’s not in the Midwest.
Philadelphia, being a mini-NYC, also has a really good gender ratio: 1.07 young women for every young man.
And yeah I’m writing content marketing, but I’m not gonna mention cheese steaks!!
Types of girls:
- Gritty in the New Jersey way
- Small-town Pennsylvania girl in a Philadelphia world
Takeaway: All-around great choice.
Boston
Boston. The Big Bean. I’m talkin’ Beantown, folks. Boston is the capital of New England, an outsized college town, and a good place to find love as a young man. The city itself is pretty
Partly due to its prevalence of large, prestigious, and female-dominated universities, it has 1.07 young women for every young man.
Types of girls:
- The grad student
- The ascended townie
New Orleans
Uhh, jazz much?
New Orleans – known as “The Big Easy '' to us locals – is a vibrant city with many distinctions: it’s a cultural melting pot with lots of good music and food, and it looks very European thanks to its French and Spanish colonial architecture.
For whatever reason, there is also a huge surplus of women in NOLA. Specifically, it’s 1.08 young women for every young man.
Types of girl:
- Bon vivant
- Will probably be sexually adventurous
Takeaway: Seems like a pretty cool place, quite frankly.
Baltimore
Baltimore! It’s rough and full of crime, which is why The Wire takes place there.
The largest city in Maryland is often overlooked. It’s a walkable legacy city with some beautiful old brick buildings and townhouses, but it also has an insane crime problem. Many neighborhoods are completely boarded up.
Baltimore has some virtues. It’s very affordable and is a home to artists and other creative type for that reason. It’s also majority black, which is cool if you’re into black girls. It also has a crazy male-to-female ratio of 1.10 young women for every young man.
Types of girl:
- Priced out of DC
- Black
Takeway: Frankly kinda sucks.
Washington, DC
Washington DC is the undisputed champion of male-to-female ratio among young people. Seriously, it’s insane.
DC isn't just a city full of politics. It’s also a city full of functional alcoholics. And it’s also the undisputed GOAT when it comes to being the best city for single men.
The nation’s capital has an incredible gender ratio of 1.17 young women for every young man. This is probably due to women dominating humanities college majors that lead them into government, nonprofit, and journalism jobs.
The women are rather… basic, though. Maybe that’s good? Who could say. Make up your own mind.
Girl types:
- The humanities-degree haver
- The NGO staffer
- The brunch girl
Takeaway: In DC, the odds are good but the goods are odd.