Young Men Are Twice As Likely to Be Single As Are Women

Young American men are in trouble and the reasons for it are not completely clear. The Hill has some troubling statistics, among which are the following:

• As of 2022, Pew Research Center found, 30 percent of U.S. adults are neither married, living with a partner nor engaged in a committed relationship. Nearly half of all young adults (twenty-somethings) are single: 34 percent of women, and a whopping 63 percent of men.
• Men in their 20s are more likely than women in their 20s to be romantically uninvolved, sexually dormant, friendless and lonely. They stand at the vanguard of an epidemic of declining marriage, sexuality and relationships that afflicts all of young America....Only half of single men are actively seeking relationships or even casual dates, according to Pew. That figure is declining.
• Young men commit suicide at four times the rate of young women. Younger men are largely responsible for rising rates of mass shootings, a trend some researchers link to their growing social isolation.
• Women now collect nearly 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees. Men still earn more, but among the youngest adults, the income gap has narrowed to $43 a week.
• Scholars say the new era of gender parity has reshaped relationship dynamics, empowering young women and, in many cases, removing young men from the equation.

So, if single young men outnumber single young women nearly two to one, then who are all the young women dating?

Some of them are dating each other. Young women are also dating and marrying slightly older men, carrying on a tradition that stretches back more than a century. The average age at first marriage is around 30 for men, 28 for women, according to census figures.

Another question is why are young men not in a relationship?

One reason is that many more women today are finding careers outside of the home and aren't interested in "marrying down." For a successful woman a man with little ambition other than playing video games with his friends has little appeal.

Perhaps another reason not mentioned in the Hill piece, but sometimes acknowledged among sociologists and anthropologists, is that it's easier for a moderately attractive woman to find a mate than it is for a moderately attractive male. Women who are of "average" attractiveness can attract men who, in terms of physical attractiveness, are above average, but men who are of average attractiveness, assuming that income, education, intelligence, etc. are equal between them, can not so easily attract above average women.

Historically, income and education were often not equal between men and women and the advantage males enjoyed in this regard made them more attractive, but, as noted above, that former disparity no longer exists so women today can afford to be more selective.

At any rate, there's more on this disparity between men and women at the link.