Men are from Rosslyn, women are from upper Northwest

Demographics

Men are from Rosslyn, women are from upper Northwest

by David Alpert • February 11, 2013 2:36 pm

Aimee Custis sent along a great map from Trulia, showing the ratio of single (straight) men to single (straight) women across the region:

The Washington metropolitan area and "Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick," which the Trulia data breaks out separately, have the nation's highest ratio of women to men among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.

The zip code with the most male-heavy singles is Rosslyn; the most female-heavy, upper Connecticut Avenue.

Trulia economist Jed Kolko writes:

Billy Joel was right: in most metros, the neighborhood with the highest ratio of men to women is in or near downtown, as well as in recently redeveloped neighborhoods. ...
The neighborhoods with the highest ratio of women to men tend to be more residential, like San Francisco's Marina and Seattle's Queen Anne, and more upscale (and safe), like the Upper East Side and Upper Connecticut Avenue.

What do you notice in the map?

19 comments

Tags: demographics, maps, Rosslyn, Upper Connecticut

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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Interestingly, I do know of an abnormal number of single guys living in the crystal city/pentagon city/aurora highlands area which is one of the more prominent areas of blue on the map.

by drumz on Feb 11, 2013 2:45 pm • link • report

Almost everyone I've ever known that lives right of the Conn Ave corridor was female. But the image is misleading because the larger areas are less dense. Suprised Dupont is a little bluer.

by Alan B. on Feb 11, 2013 2:48 pm • link • report

Women appreciate the charm and beauty of upper Connecticut Avenue while the men see the convenience of all those highways and proximity to Downtown as assets. Women prefer the liberal politics of Maryland while Men think living near Virginia's pentagon makes them feel macho. Sexist much!

by Thayer-D on Feb 11, 2013 3:01 pm • link • report

I noticed I need to take the orange/blue lines across the Potomac more often. LOL.

On a serious note, I'm surprised Wards 7 and 8 don't have more a more intense pink given the number of female-headed householders.

by Veronica O. Davis (Ms V) on Feb 11, 2013 3:29 pm • link • report

Some of the grey areas are parks, but for others it's hard to believe that they really do have "too few singles to report." Even the tony 22207-Arlington zip has plenty of unmarried people: http://www.brainyzip.com/social/22/social_22207.html

by Tom Veil on Feb 11, 2013 3:34 pm • link • report

What's the deal with the Mount Rainier/Brentwood/Cottage City/Colmar Manor area? Auto repair shops, perhaps?

by Frank IBC on Feb 11, 2013 3:37 pm • link • report

The bluest areas seem to be College Park (driven by graduate students, perhaps?) and Andrews.

But what's that deep blue area around Huntington? Popular commuting area to the Pentagon?

by Frank IBC on Feb 11, 2013 3:41 pm • link • report

I'd been trying to get other people to do this analysis. Thanks.

by RobHalligan on Feb 11, 2013 3:51 pm • link • report

Couldn't help but notice that Huntington is pretty blue there too. Even bluer than Rosslyn judging from the map.

by Froggie on Feb 11, 2013 3:59 pm • link • report

We adjusted these counts of men and women living alone based on our estimates of the prevalence of single gay men and women in each ZCTA, in order to estimate the number of heterosexual single men and women living alone. To do this, we used 2010 Census counts of same-sex partners – based on the correction described here – and assumed that single gay men and women were distributed geographically in proportion to same-sex male and female couples.

I question if that assumption is valid. The very existence of this map shows that couples and singles have different priorities in where they live. Why would it be different for gays and lesbians?

by Juanita de Talmas on Feb 11, 2013 4:15 pm • link • report

@Frank IBC - Mt Rainier is still female headed (zip code 20712). You're looking at the Brentwood/Cottage City/Colmar Manor zip code (20722). Its just slightly male heavy.

by AA on Feb 11, 2013 4:20 pm • link • report

Re: Brentwood area - I think that part of PG County is a big destination for people from Central America. Immigrants from overseas tend to be disproportionately male.

by Answer Guy on Feb 11, 2013 4:22 pm • link • report

Yeah, I have to second that odd concentration of single guys in 22303 (Huntington) but there is also an equally odd concentration of females just next door (in 22307 & less so in 22306).

by Thad on Feb 11, 2013 4:33 pm • link • report

@ AA - that seems like a good explanation. I'm not familiar with the demographics of that area, but I do know that nearby Riverdale is "Little Mexico".

by Frank IBC on Feb 11, 2013 7:25 pm • link • report

A lot of the Huntington guys might work at Belvoir. Though, if we had a map of where they spend their free time, I could gather more accurate data.

by Mel on Feb 11, 2013 7:42 pm • link • report

And the only person I knew in Huntington was a single guy as well.

by Drumz on Feb 11, 2013 8:15 pm • link • report

1 Where is the data coming from

2 What ages are the looking at 18 and up to the oldest person in the area which could be 100+ ?

3 How is a person determined to be single are they going by taxes or something ? Otherwise how can the info be proven to be true ?

by kk on Feb 12, 2013 1:47 am • link • report

I feel like some version of this pops up every year around this time.

1) ZCTAs are poor approximations of neighborhoods (especially in the suburbs, look how big some of those are). Census tracts tend to be better proxies for neighborhoods, but they're also much less marketable. More people know where 20001 is than 49.01.

2) Unmarried != single. It's the best proxy out there, yes, but obvious not every unmarried person is dating.

3) These numbers don't adjust for the idea that people want to date within culture. Women typically want to date men of the same age or slightly older. People with advanced degrees want to date other people with advanced degrees. Women don't want to date men with much lower incomes, etc. Saying that there are more women than men without any qualifiers doesn't get at any of this.

I think an interesting analysis could be done with existing Census and ACS data. Maybe in a way that drills down to small geographies, like this tries to do, but definitely more in depth on some important questions.

by Rob P on Feb 12, 2013 10:56 am • link • report

lots of blue on the Virginia side of the river. Wonder how much of that is military?

by Jack on Feb 13, 2013 12:59 pm • link • report