Raleigh Ranked Fourth for Singles

January, 12, 2009 , by Ben

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An article published by Sperling’s Best Places ranks Raleigh, North Carolina as the fourth best city in America for dating.  The capital city is led only by San Diego, CA, Colorado Springs, CO and Austin, TX.  According to the site…

“The study is based on criteria that includes percentage of singles ages 18-24, population density, and dating venues per capita such as concerts, coffee shops, bars, bowling alleys, etc., and includes 80 metro areas in America.”

As far as Raleigh’s credentials are concerned, Sperling claims that the area’s high number of 18-24 year-olds as well as the prevalence of online daters contributed to the city’s ranking.

While Triangle residents can certainly celebrate, other areas in NC still have some work to do.  According to the same site, the Greensboro/Winston-Salem metro area ranks as the sixth worst for singles.  Of course, who’s to say that single is superior?


photo by Ben McKeown

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  • arthurb3
    01/13 12:07 PM

    So that explains why I am single!!?>

  • highjoeltage
    01/13 12:36 PM

    So the study factored in online dating as a sign that the dating scene is STRONG in a particular place. Interesting. Raleigh! the best place to meet people without actually making human contact with them.

  • MMI
    01/13 03:27 PM

    So I not only need to focus on online dating, but I need to reduce my age to that 18-24 demographic, as well.  wink  Actually, that’s probably the one glaring weakness of these lists.

  • celiafate
    01/13 04:31 PM

    hahahahaha.  This always cracks me up.  I can vouch the sociability gap between colorado springs/austin and Raleigh is GINORMOUS.  Not to mention the unhealthy smoking pits of doom you have to deal with here. But yeah, i guess they’re talking about college kids, where all the universities mislead our point curve.

  • Carver
    01/13 04:54 PM

    18-24 year old demographic explains it’s all! I’ve dated a few of these so called ladies who are 24 year old young professionals (supposedly) and they are more like 24 year old “Shallow Pools”...Raleigh is drowning in them!

  • Carver
    01/13 04:58 PM

    Typo ::  “explains it” 

    Thanks…

  • Tony
    01/13 05:32 PM

    I remember seeing one of those studies coming out and seeing Jacksonville, NC near the top of the national list. Yes, there are certainly a lot of single guys in Jacksonville, but. . .

    A prime example of stats without context gone awry.

  • MMI
    01/13 06:26 PM

    By their rationale, Fayetteville should be right up there, too.  Jax has a Navy base that tends to skew the numbers.


    Don’t get me wrong, Triangle!  I love this area.  It *is* good to be single here—just not for the same reasons these rankings tend to think.

  • MMI
    01/13 06:27 PM

    My bad—read that as Jax, Florida.  The sentiment is the same, though.

  • Betsy
    01/13 10:27 PM

    Carver—Yeah!  and if you think 18-24 year old women are shallow, you should try dating an 18-24 year old man!
    -
    Well, I don’t mean you, specifically, should actually try it. 
    -
    But, great point about the weird, arbitrary metrics.

  • MMI
    01/14 04:04 AM

    Hahahaha!  I think I have figured out the source of the misplaced “diagnostic.”  The first sentence in the linked article is, “In partnership with AXE Deodorant Bodyspray…”  It goes on to spout such eloquent prose as “Hooking that hottie is hard enough without the odds stacked against you…”


    Apparently, AXE are “nown coast-to-coast for their dating game expertise.”  That explains the documentary footage in their infamous commercials (which I find funny most of the time, but probably not the way that they were intended to be).  AXE also decided the criteria for selecting those cities, which somehow ranked Atlanta near the bottom and Charlotte dead last.  Apparently, they haven’t been out in either of those cities:
    a) It’s not that hard to meet people in either location, and
    b) If it’s young and/or shallow you’re looking for, then Charlotte’s a damned good place to start.


    You’ll also note that each of their “Most/Best” city rankings, the study is designed by a corporate sponsor.  AXE sponsored the dating ranks, Intel sponsored the “most wired city” study, and Pep Boys looked at the “most drivable” spots.  This crap isn’t even Trivia—it’s Advertising!!

  • MMI
    01/14 04:05 AM

    *known   (Damned non-editable format!)

  • ford
    01/14 11:40 AM

    colorado springs has one of the worst singles scenes i’ve seen in the country. the air force academy and the other 4 bases in town hugely skew the numbers. i can’t believe it made it on the list at all.

  • MMI
    01/14 05:18 PM

    Maybe the idea is that if you use enough AXE body spray, it doesn’t matter.  Don’t ask, don’t tell!!

  • Carver
    01/16 06:23 PM

    The AXE body spray remarks are cracking me up. Good stuff! 

    Betsy—I’ll let you date the men and I’ll stick to the ladies but I should not have excluded the gentlemen from my remark as well. Raleigh is a great area to live and I’d not trade it for anything even if I have to continue dating the young dewy eyed professionals.  Wee…

  • MMI
    01/16 09:24 PM

    Hey, some things were just meant to be made fun of.  Actually, it’s not so much the body spray as the boys (and I DO mean “boys”) who buy that shit in hopes of scoring girls.

    I’m going to date my self here, but it reminds me of when I was a VERY wee lad, and all I wanted was a pair of Zips sneakers.  According to the commercials, I could leap over the tallest fences with those puppies on my feet.

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