Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World

Turning Data into Dates

By Sydney Beveridge


Cupid scours a trove of demographic data to guide his arrows. This Valentine’s Day, let Social Explorer help you map your way to love.

Look up information on the 59.7 million available men and 67.4 million available women across the nation (available meaning unmarried, divorced, separated or widowed). These bachelors and bachelorettes can be sorted by age group, geography and more as you develop your demographic dating plan.

Map of 2010 American Community Survey Never Married Population

For instance, Donald Demographics wants to know where the single ladies are. Using the data sorted by city, he can identify where lots of available women dwell. Since he has a thing for women with accents, he can refer to the “Sex By Place Of Birth By Year Of Entry For The Foreign-Born Population” table to help find an international lady.

Debbie Data is looking for a smart, financially stable man. She can use Social Explorer’s “Median Earnings By Sex By Educational Attainment (In 2010 Inflation Adjusted Dollars) (For Population Age 25+)” table to see which neighborhoods she should hang out in to find more of such guys.

She can even target neighborhoods where more people have health insurance — a really hot trait — by using the “Health Insurance Coverage Status By Sex By Age” table.

She also has a thing for arty types, and can keep an eye out for areas with more men in that occupation by consulting the “Sex by Industry” table. More into an outdoorsy crowd? Try areas with larger numbers of men or women in farming, fishing and forestry.

Check out Social Explorer’s maps and reports for more information on dating possibilities in your neighborhood and beyond. It’s the perfect opportunity to try out our custom colors in pink, red and more.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Social Explorer!

Sydney Beveridge is the Media and Content Editor for Social Explorer, where she works on the blog, curriculum materials, how-to-videos, social media outreach, presentations and strategic planning. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Recent Comments

  1. simon

    Maybe the lads will want to re-think a move to Muncie – what if those ladies are single for a reason? Or, they’ve got partners they aren’t able to list for legal reasons (unable to marry)? Lesbians do exist. In larger numbers than we know of, I suspect.

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