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Comment by atq2119 | Hacker News Reader

> 60% of gen Z men are single, 30% women

I always do a double take when I read such statistics. How can they possibly add up? Are gen Z men considered particularly undesirable leading to lots of relationships with large age gaps? Is there a ridiculously large overhang of gay women (over men)? Is there a huge number of men with multiple partners?

These gender disparities are difficult enough to believe when they come to sexual relations, it gets even harder when talking about relationships.

I guess what I'm saying is: I don't believe those numbers as stated and would be interested in an explanation or at least a source.

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I think I recall that being somewhat disputed because the relationship status was self reported, some suggested that men might not consider certain types of relationships as serious but women do, so there's a disparity in reporting what is and isn't an actual relationship and the reality might be more balanced. Sweden statistics, xd.

From what I can find after a brief search, there's this one [0] that claims 63% for men, 34% for women, and [1] there's a a generally known toxicity around dating these days that makes these numbers entirely believable. I don't pretend to have a large enough network of acquaintances to make a good guess, but hardly anyone I know isn't single, and I know maybe two or three religious types that are actually married.

As for gen Z men being especially undesirable, there's well... [2].

[0] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/08/for-valen...

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/GenZ/comments/1eo9bzj/interesting_b...

[2] https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12...

So are you saying, some gen Z men are in a relationship, but don't know it? I do buy that, it seems to be the basis of some rom-com plots. The clueless guy that doesn't know he's being reeled in.

Other factor.

As the other post suggested. There are large age gaps. Women date older, men date younger. This is also long known. Does it add up to 60/30? That does seem high, but maybe with every other factor thrown in, it explains it?

> So are you saying, some gen Z men are in a relationship, but don't know it?

Or, you know, are leading women on.

Both could be happening. Guess if we are assigning some guilt, then it would depend on self awareness?

I do find these reported numbers hard to believe.

I could certainly invent explanations for them. For example, I can say "no man would date until they've earned enough money to buy a house." This means younger males won't be dating but that doesn't appear to describe the world we live in.

I could say "Every man who dates is dating 2 women" but that also doesn't appear to describe the world we live in.

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