In New York, It's Raining Single Women!

There is a reason the sight of a balding, short, pudgy man walking arm-in-arm with a tall, leggy and meticulously toned and coiffed blond is so common on the streets of Manhattan.

Surprise, surprise: Single women between 25 and 44—the prime marrying age—far outnumber single men in most large cities on the East Coast and in the Midwest, but New York City’s “mating market” is the worst of all, according to Richard Florida, the author of Who’s Your City?

Mr. Florida’s “Singles Map" of the U.S. offers some good news for men, but savvy, well-educated, women hoping to find a mate and settle down are out of luck. In the greater New York area single women outnumber single men by more than 210,000. Things are a little better in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., where they outnumber men by 50,000; but if spiking real estate prices continue to push young professionals to Philadelphia the situation might get worse there.

One reason ladies in the prime marriage years flock to big cities is to “compete for the most eligible men,” Mr. Florida said on his Web site, and intelligent women who gravitate to “vibrant cities are more likely to stay single - for longer, at least - because they rightly refuse to settle for someone who can't keep up with them intellectually or otherwise.”

L.A. on the other hand is the polar opposite of New York (in more ways than one) with nearly 90,000 more unmarried men than women, though, granted, the map does not specify sexual orientation. Phoenix can beckon unattached ladies with a 65,000 surplus of unmarried men—not to mention bargain basement property prices. Single men outnumber single women by roughly 65,000 in San Francisco as well—again no mention of whether they are straight or gay. More unmarried men than women live in San Diego, Dallas, and Seattle, too.

Meanwhile the greater Boston area is one of the very few metropolitan areas with a near equal proportion of men (604,960) to women (606,580).

Perhaps it’s time to go West, ladies.