Just talk to me or any of my adorable, successful, fun single female friends and we'll tell you that there is a man drought going on. Seriously, it's like the pool of men who are marriage material has evaporated faster than well, water in California.
But now, there is actually empirical evidence to back up this favorite girl's night topic of conversation.
According to newly released results from the latest Pew Research Center census analysis, there are only 91 eligible bachelors out there for every 100 single women. That means 9 of us are SOL (so out of luck) before we even get a date with one of those remaining in this endangered species. There really is a shortage of men who are husband material!
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Of course, this statistic comes from the admission that most women (78%) in the never-married 25-34 age bracket covered in the report consider "eligible" to mean that he has a job…and the number of employed men is on the decline.
And heaven help you if you actually hope that your man might be tall or have hair!
Okay, so actually there isn't anything about height or lack of hair in the study, but you get the point. Basically this report is saying that women can't afford to be all that picky because they're in the minority.
Of course, that's assuming that you value him "having a job" as among your top criteria. Though this study showed that the number of men with gainful employment has steadily declined in recent years — in 1960 there were 139 never-married men with jobs per 100 women — the part of these stats we can't overlook is that there are now more women in the workplace. Personally, while having a man with a job would be nice, I can't say it would be my number one priority in finding a mate.
Actually, it's rather fascinating that women rated employment even higher on the list for mate-matching than having similar ideas about wanting kids and how to raise them (70%), sharing morals (38%), and being similarly educated (28%). Call me crazy, but I would rate shared morals much higher than a cushy bottom line, but maybe that's just me?
Also, get this…there are 77 never-married men ages 25-34 with post-graduate degrees for every 100 women with similar educational credentials. So if you're highly educated and want a guy who is smart as well as has a job, the odds are even less in your favor.
Even with these stats, I applaud women being choosy about their mates. It's okay to know what you want, and I don't think people should settle just because they're of "marrying age" — unless they'd also like to end up a divorce statistic.
However, that may not be an issue either, since it seems that not only are people not settling…they're not getting married at all! In 2012, 1-in-5 adults ages 25 and older (that's about 42 million people) had never been married. In 1960, that number was only about 1-in-10 adults. And if things keep going at this rate, by the year 2030, a full 25% of those in the 45-54 age bracket at that time will never have been married.
So basically, this boils down to the following: Fewer men + fewer people getting married = it's a good thing my single gal pals and I have started talking about saving for a retirement home together on a beach somewhere warm!
What do you think? Is there a shortage of eligible men going on?
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