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Best (and Worst) Cities to Meet Men
Still single, gals? America's most eligible bachelors don't live where you think. The Daily Beast crunched the numbers to pinpoint the 36 cities with the most—and least—dateable guys.
We’ve come a long way from Where The Boys Are, the 1960 flick about four college girls who hit the road in search of eligible men. Today, such crucial relocation choices can’t be left up to chance. So The Daily Beast set out to quantify the best American cities for where to meet a great guy—one who’s smart, fit, fun, and most importantly, single.
Our methodology was straightforward. First, we measured cities with 500,000 or more residents. Suburbs, which have a far higher percentage of married people, weren’t included in the sample.
Click Below to View Our Gallery of the Best and Worst Cities to Meet Men
Second, we focused primarily on which places had the highest numbers of eligible men, percentage-wise. (In terms of meeting someone in any given place, it’s the ratio that matters.) We initially defined eligible as single (sorry, philanderers) and 18-to-49 years old. Data came from the U.S. Census. That critical number—the biggest pool of youngish, single men—encompassed 60% of the weighting.
Third, to further burnish the idea of “eligible” as a good catch, we gave credit to cities with the highest percentage of single men with four-year college degrees. While individual charm and success vary, as a whole, this rewards men with brains and future earnings power (since a college degree typically adds $1 million to a person’s lifetime salary). We weighted this 20%.
Fourth, it doesn’t do any good to have eligible men around if there’s no way to meet them. So we rewarded cities with the most gyms per capita, which serves as a proxy for recreational opportunities (and also helps on the eligibility front, assuming fitness is a virtue). That’s 10%. And finally, nightlife—specifically, bars, restaurants, clubs, and theaters per capita, as measured by Citysearch—were weighted 10%.
That’s how we’re playing the game. With that, here’s where the boys are: America’s 36 biggest cities, ranked from first to worst.
1. Atlanta
Whether it's the southern hospitality or the sub-tropical breezes, something about Atlanta is attracting all the right men.
2. Boston
With over 50 institutions of higher learning in the Boston area, the city has always been an ideal destination for the young and upwardly mobile.
3. Seattle
Microsoft, Boeing, and other tech companies that have sprung up around Seattle draw thousands of smart, educated guys from all over the world.
4. San Francisco
With those smarty-pants from Google and Facebook buzzing around on their scooters, intelligent guys with great careers are plentiful in San Francisco.
5. Minneapolis-St. Paul
The Land of 10,000 Lakes might safely be renamed the Land of 10,000 Dates.
6. Washington, DC
A city that's all about networking unwinds at some of the best happy hours in the country, and unlike its hipper neighbor New York, people actually have time for a social life.
7. Austin
An exuberant nightlife, year-round festivals, and thousands of U.T. undergrads make the state capital a haven for art and tech lovers alike.
8. Miami
What it lacks in educated men (it ranked 24th in number of bachelors degrees) Miami makes up for in gyms and social life, coming in at #2 and #1, respectively.
9. San Diego
Like Miami's beach bunnies, San Diegans tend to have great tans, great hair, great bodies, and because of the city's high cost of living, lucrative jobs.
10. Denver
A growing arts district, top-notch microbreweries, and the nearby Rocky Mountains make the city scenic, fun, and appealing to outdoorsy singles.
11. Portland, OR
An emphasis on free-thinking makes it a place where even aging hippies can find love.
12. Columbus, OH
The scene is dominated by Ohio State, and available Buckeyes are out every night at the bars on Park Street.
13. Chicago
What pulled the Windy City down to number 13? An apparent dearth of gyms.
14. Los Angeles
It may be the glitz and sunshine, not the higher learning, that's attracting transplants to the city of angels. Intellectual types might fare better heading north or east.
15. Baltimore
At its heart, "Bawlamer" is still a working-class enclave, where hardy men have lingered to work in manufacturing and shipping.
16. Milwaukee
Forbes ranked America's brewery capital among its top cities for singles this year, with high marks in job growth and "coolness."
17. Tucson
Though there are plenty of single men here, this perennially sunny city may not be the hottest spot to find a date.
18. Houston
This city is particularly hurt by a lack of single men compared to its competitors.
19. Nashville
The country music industry attracts songsters to the city's Music Row, and local bars are loaded with crooning cowboys slinging their guitars, hoping to make it big.
20. Tampa-St. Petersburg
The area's proximity to beaches ensures a vital nightlife and men who stay in shape.
21. Dallas-Fort Worth
If you're looking for sophisticated urbanites, head for Dallas. If pickups and Wranglers are more your style, poke around Fort Worth.
22. Detroit
Unemployment doesn't bode well for a city's dating scene, and the U.S. headquarters of the auto industry has had a grim run.
23. New York City
Sex and the City tricked a nation of women into believing that New York was the ultimate destination for single women looking for love.
24. Phoenix
This nondescript desert metropolis doesn't offer much in the way of meet and greets; it scored low for social life.
25. Philadelphia
A major-league city, to be sure, but we're sorry to say that Philadelphia resides in the bush leagues when it comes to men.
26. Charlotte
After New York City, Charlotte is the country's banking capital, making it the home to a number of young yuppies in training.
27. San Jose
Compared to its more cosmopolitan sister city to the north, San Francisco, the geekier San Jose has a hard time hosting singles who want to mingle.
28. Indianapolis
The Indianapolis 500 might as well refer to the number of eligible men left in this city.
29. Memphis
You're more likely to find a good BBQ joint here than a guy with washboard abs.
30. Las Vegas
All those wedding chapels must be for out-of-towners -- for singles unfortunate enough to live in Sin City, good luck getting hitched.
31. Albuquerque
This sleepy southwestern town has Native American folklore and petroglyphs, but slim pickings for social life.
32. Oklahoma City
The Oklahoma Christian University lists Krispy Kreme as one of 76 places to take your date in Oklahoma City. Another suggestion: Sam's Club, for the free samples.
33. Louisville
Situated in the heart of the Bible Belt, most of the men here are already taken.
34. San Antonio
So unless there's a convention in town (and there usually is) the options in this city can be few and far between.
35. Jacksonville, FL
This is the city that never seems to end, sprawling for nearly 900 square miles. Despite all that space, Jacksonville has hardly any single guys.
36. El Paso, TX
El Paso came in dead last in three of our four categories (single guys, social life, and gyms) and nearly last in education.
For press inquiries, contact this writer at press@thedailybeast.com.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Too funny. For Denver you have a picture of the Flatirons- which are in Boulder - 25 miles up the road.
hmm. Detroit, Milwaukee and Columbus are better places to meet people than New York? This list should be shot to death before it hurts anyone.
Yes.
Milwaukee, wasn't that the best place to meet Jeffrey Dahmer for a while?
thats because all the good looking guys in New York are Gay.
Atlanta at #1. After I saw that I knew this was BS. I live here. The ratio of men to women is about 1/8. Yes for every 1 man there are about 8 women. So once you add that in then the chances go down. Secondly, Atlanta holds one of the largest homosexual populations. Now if you are a male looking for a male, I can tell you where to go, but as for educated women like myself, good luck fighting the other 7 women for that 1 man.
I'm rather shocked that Columbus OH beat out NYC. I have lived in both places, and let me just say that the majority of men I met in Columbus drank excessively, did drugs, set things on fire, and beat each other up (seriously, the majority). The men who didn't do that were gay. The men I've met in NY have been worldly, smart, clever, and successful... quality over quantity is all I have to say.
Back in my day, the club scene in NYC was very superficial, people really got caught up in what's in and what's out and it all seemed very forced. 'Smart and clever and successful' was whatever the herd decided it was at the moment. I met my wife there though so it wasn't all bad.
To have Minneapolis on this list at all must be a joke. To have it at number six is a farce. Most people in this fair city are married with children. I'm single and if there's 10,000 dates here, please tell me where?! Sheesh!
Agreed. Please tell me where as well!
I agree with "itsme07". Its #1 alright, if you are a gay male ! ! !
DB is the new BS. We all know the best place to meet men is Craigslist.
There.
Boston - depends on the kind of guy you're looking for. If you're looking for the 18-21 crowd, you'll find them in those 50 colleges and universities. If you're gay, you'll find them in the nearly 1/3 of the non-student population of Boston. If you're interested in the young, upwardly mobile guy, there might be one or two who can spare some time from their 80 work week. And if you want to date a married man with children, there are plenty of them around.
Sorry, but the young "upward mobility guy" is getting ready to fall on his ass.
Why the hell am I here?
Does this included gay guys, too?
If there including Atlanta it would have to include gay guys.
Atlanta is like the black gay capital of the world. For them it's the place to be.
I've been through Atlanta. Easy pickings for those who are straight.
Sad how some of you enjoy living on hate so much. You should try to give it up, you'll be amazed how much happier your life will be.
Hey ThinkAgain,
Above OOOWWW's comment there were four others COMPLAINING about the proportion of gay men in various cities. OOOWWW didn't complain; in fact, quite the opposite: He seems rather HAPPY about the number of gay men in Atlanta.
So my question is: Why did you ignore all the complainers and attack the contented one as a "hater"? Is it because the complainers had mostly female-indicative nicknames? Is it a socially-induced pressure to seek to attack men as "haters" that overrides even the most clear evidence of happiness? Do you suspect OOOWWW is white? Maybe a ... Republican? Certainly, the Other?
Free your mind. Try to see the world sometimes even as "the Other" sees it.
There is nothing in Atlanta, GA for a strait, single, college educated black females except heart ache. There are tons of gay and bi sexual BM in Atlanta, GA.I'm in my 40's and in shape. My gay male friends have no problem here. But, i'm ready to leave. The the gay men and women do well down here. The rest of us are scraping from crumbs!
In other words, any big city in the United States is a good place to meet men. :/
Non-story.
Many of the comments above have noted the failure of the survery to exclude gay men from "pool" of eligible bachelors. And this is a good point. I visited San Francisco a few years ago and never in my life saw such desparate-looking straight women. You could see it in their eyes. If you spoke to them they would try to determine if you were gay while their gaze searched out your lefthand ring finger. I am convinced that I might have known several of these women in the Biblical way in the bushes off the street -- some even after they saw my wedding ring, they were that desparate.
I would add one more group that should be disqualified from the pool of eligible bachelors: unwed fathers.
I will tell women where the eligible bachelors are: In smaller cities and towns (under 50,000 population). Of course, the drawback(?) is that there will be fewer highly educated men than in larger cities.
Good luck, ladies, and I think I will let my three daughters (the oldest is 17) read this article and the comments. ... Hmmm, except maybe not this one.
You have three daughters, poor girls
Are you capable of anything besides personal attacks? If not, you have no business being a TDB commenter.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Anyone who thinks this sort of thing may be anything other than entertainment probably also likely thinks that their skin color and favorite color are character traits.
Ok .. soo.. what about the gay man consideration.. did you filter your results for that?
I agree with the other comments: this list is bogus. I lived in Seattle for a decade. It is a great place to meet gay men, but not straight ones. Anyone who has visited the Microsoft campus would laugh at the idea that the men who work there are desirable.
As a straight, professional man, I'd just like to say "Thank you!" to the feminist movement for producing such a surplus of highly-educated, hard-working, good-income and DESPARATE straight women. Or should I thank feminism for creating the shortage of similarly-situated men? Anyway, it works out the same way! :-D
We men couldn't have done better if we had planned it all ourselves.
If you are going to use CAPS, check your spelling.
Well, darn it. Good catch, thanks. I should remember the difference between "despErate" and "sepArate".
I lived in Boston for a few years and I felt sorry for all the single women there. The indigenous men are merely urban rednecks. Stick with the college guys from out of town.
The person who wrote this and the person who approved this should really issue a followup. Who exactly is this article for? This is the stupidest most unhelpful article ever. I mean gyms per capita? Single? Educated? All the cities at the top are great for meeting GAY men. And if that is what the article was meant to address, then it may very well be accurate. But Atlanta sucks for meeting straight men. And the straight men that do live in the area DO live in the suburbs!
I have lived in L.A., Atlanta, Detroit, and New York. Men in Detroit treat women the best and are most marriage minded despite not always having a college degree. But the most men are in the New York area. Because face it, you not only get the New Yorkers, you get all single men within an hour radius so North Jersey and Connecticut too.
Are you kidding? PURE is the best place to meet men in Austin? Who came up with that?! Dirty 6th is for college kids, creepy old guys attempting to meet college girls, and tourists. Red River is for hippies/hipsters. Warehouse District is for GLBT and people into bottle service (not me). West 6th is for douchebags/yuppies. Unless you're into any of the above, I think places like Flying Saucer, Draughthouse, and even Gingerman are such better choices.
I have to disagree with the reasoning of lack of gyms in Chicago. I believe the study does not reflect that everyone in Chicago lives in high-rises and that each one has a gym in it. There are also about five urban "country clubs" that hold more members than 50 "Bally's". I have lived in 9 urban cities in my life so far, including most on this list, and Chicago is the EASIEST place to find single men who are educated, well mannered, and in great shape.
I would agree with what can be found in Chi town. I am very close to the city and have found the best men there. They are smart, educated, cutured and tons of fun.
is this going to be followed up with the best and worst cities to meet chicks?
Although, the list is based upon the ranks noted by the author of the article. I have visited the majority of the cities listed.. 2/3 of the cities listed..inherently have a large percentage gay male population..good look girls..
yea..I waiting for the follow up with the best and worst cities to meet women..
There is no place like the NY-NJ-Conn. area.. these states are beast for fabulous, sexy, women and daper men ..
I was surprized not to find New York City on the list.. some of the most educated people, fun loving , in shape, modern thinker, outgoing..worldly educated..one of the most jet-set- travel folks.. on the planet reside in New York City..
When you print an article about where to find a smart, funny, good looking woman who's not a social climbing, money grubbing, judgemental, control freak psychotic--that will be useful.
On the other hand, you should also do the worst city to meet women, and I'll give you city number #1: Omaha , Nebraska.
Who wants to meet men. I would rather fight than switch.
Thank you.
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