Singles
- dating edinburgh
Boys feature in this year’s list of new year resolutions, and I’m also becoming more of a proper statistician every day. So statistically, what are my chances of actually meeting an eligible young man here in Scotland?
The last time everyone in Scotland was counted was in 2011. The Scottish census provides a lot of interesting data (click). In 2011, there were a bit more than 5 million people living in Scotland. Of these, only 48.5% were men - so, fewer men than women - it’s already not looking great for me!
But then, what about the age group I’m interested in, let’s say 30-39 year olds? Well, there are 324,876 males in this age group who would go for, say, the 512,546 25-39 year old ladies in Scotland. I’m assuming that guys don’t mind having much younger partners… But let’s not worry too much about the competition and keep the eyes on the prize.
The last time everyone in Scotland was counted was in 2011. The Scottish census provides a lot of interesting data (click). In 2011, there were a bit more than 5 million people living in Scotland. Of these, only 48.5% were men - so, fewer men than women - it’s already not looking great for me!
But then, what about the age group I’m interested in, let’s say 30-39 year olds? Well, there are 324,876 males in this age group who would go for, say, the 512,546 25-39 year old ladies in Scotland. I’m assuming that guys don’t mind having much younger partners… But let’s not worry too much about the competition and keep the eyes on the prize.
Of those 324,876 young men some will be taken. Getting rid of all the ones who are married, in a civil partnership, or living together as a couple leaves me with 114,408 candidates across Scotland. But I’m not a friend of long-distance relationships, so how many of these live in Edinburgh?
The answer is 13,851. And now it gets a bit less certain. Let’s get rid of gay men, they won’t fancy me! There is little data available on sexual orientation. The Integrated Household Survey 2014 estimates that 1.5% of men in the UK are gay, but that’s across all ages, and older people are less likely to identify as gay. The Scottish Household Survey in 2014 reported 1% of Scottish men to be gay but also sees this figure as underestimating the true percentage. So I’ll go with 1.5% which reduces my man pool to 13,600.
My experience shows that it is rather unlikely for me to end up with someone without some sort of university degree. Now, 53% of men in Edinburgh between the ages 25 and 49 have at least a first degree. Assuming that this percentage is roughly representative of my preferred age group (30-39) and that Edinburgh’s educated men are equally likely to be single or married etc., this leaves me with an optimistic estimate of 7,200 available young men in Edinburgh.
Surely, one of them will also be smart, kind, funny and good-looking?
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