WASHINGTON — The capital has long had a reputation as a town where the ambitious arrive single and stay that way. A data study now gives that reputation a number, and the number has a twist.
Among 115 large U.S. cities, Washington has the lowest ratio of unmarried men to unmarried women, according to a SmartAsset analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2024 one-year American Community Survey. The District counts 84.5 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women ages 15 to 44. Across the large cities studied, the average runs the other way: about 107 single men for every 100 single women.
The District also ranks fourth in the share of adults who have never married, at 55.1%, behind Detroit, Boston and Rochester, N.Y., and tied in that measure with Milwaukee. Thirty-one percent of District adults are married, 8% are divorced, 4.2% are widowed and 1.7% are separated.
| City | Men per 100 women | Never married | Married |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington, D.C. | 84.5 | 55.1% | 31.0% |
| Mobile, Ala. | 89.1 | 42.0% | 35.6% |
| Baltimore | 89.6 | 51.5% | 29.8% |
| New Orleans | 89.7 | 48.4% | 32.2% |
| Boston | 93.4 | 56.6% | 30.3% |
| Detroit | 93.8 | 57.4% | 23.0% |
| Virginia Beach, Va. | 109.5 | 31.1% | 50.2% |
| Fremont, Calif. | 136.7 | 26.4% | 63.8% |
Read the fine print before you despair
A few caveats are worth carrying to brunch. The ratio counts people from age 15, so it includes high school students, and “never married” is not the same as “available”: it includes people in long relationships who simply have not filed the paperwork. The study also stops at the city line, which in this region is a short walk. A great many of Washington’s single men pay rent in Arlington, Alexandria and Silver Spring, and the survey does not follow anyone across the Potomac on a Saturday night.
The study measures where people live, not where they date, and it says nothing about who is looking for whom.
The app is still the matchmaker
For those who do find each other, the method is increasingly a screen. One-third of U.S. couples who married in 2025 met through dating sites or apps, up from 27% the year before, according to The Knot’s 2026 Real Weddings Study, which surveyed couples nationwide. Meeting online has been the most common way couples met for four straight years. Friends (14%) and school (12%) trailed far behind.
Couples in that study dated an average of three years before getting engaged, and 70% lived together first. The average couple married at 32, invited 117 guests and spent about $34,000 on the ceremony and reception, the study found.
What comes next
Fresher numbers are close. The Census Bureau is scheduled to release 2025 one-year American Community Survey estimates later this month, which will show whether the District’s ratio moved. Until then, the arithmetic suggests that single men in Washington face somewhat better odds than the national average, and single women may want to widen the map to include the other side of the river.
Jewel Jordan, a Census Bureau spokeswoman, said the 2025 one-year American Community Survey estimates will be released to the public on Oct. 29, after an embargoed release to the media on Oct. 27. Sex ratios for unmarried men appear in Table S1201, she said, and figures for the city of Washington differ from those for the D.C. metropolitan area.
The Inquisitor asked SmartAsset, The Knot, Match Group, the Census Bureau and the D.C. Office of Planning’s State Data Center about the figures, including whether regional numbers that include the suburbs show the same imbalance. The Census Bureau responded; its answers are included above. The others had not immediately responded. This story will be updated with any other responses.
Update, Oct. 23, 2026: This story has been updated with a response from the Census Bureau.
Photo: Looking south on 14th Street NW from U Street at night. Ted Eytan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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