That's not possible from a statistical standpoint unless men account for 80% of the total human population. And we know for a fact that it's a lot closer to 50-50. By extension, it means that if most men do not have a partner, then most women do not either.

it's explained in the article; when there's an age gap it tends to be older man, younger woman rather than the reverse, and there are more out gay/bi women now who are dating each other. and not mentioned but likely a factor: guys with multiple girlfriends.

The key word is "young".

Among 15 and 20 year olds, the most skewed results (India and China) are 106 to 100, a difference of 6%. Rest of the world is pretty close to 50-50 [1].

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/gender-ratio#:~:text=In%20the%20g....

Young women are dating older men. That's why younger men are in fewer relationships. Older women also skew the wrong way for similar reasons.

this sounds like all facets of sexuality need consideration.

homosexual/onanisexual orientation will smear the numbers, polyamory, needs to be considered also.

How does that make sense? Are there significantly more young men than women? Or do the women date older men?

This is an important question the article doesn't even seen to try to answer. It does seem to rule out the "older men" theory as a complete explanation:

> Young women are also dating and marrying slightly older men, carrying on a tradition that stretches back more than a century. The average age at first marriage is around 30 for men, 28 for women, according to census figures.

If the average difference 8s only 2 years, that doesn't explain the whole gap, and its remarkable just how quickly people are to age difference must be the whole story.

So what is it? Are young women less willing to report to a stranger they are single? More likely to report they are in a relationship than just dating? Something else? It's a shame the article does no curiosity about this.

If 20% of the men are in "relationships" with 80% of the women, this would help to account for some of it.

Sure that would explain it, if that were true. It's not in the article however, and I'm unaware of any study that supports it. Without data backing it up the suggestion that (on average) 1 in 5 men is simultaneously in a relationship with 4 women just an assumption, no different than the many people in this thread assuming those women must be with older men.

> Or do the women date older men?

Yes. This isn't even new, this has been the case for decades. The effects aren't usually heavily pronounced (spouses are usually within 10 years of age of each other), but in almost every marriage on record where the two participants are not of the exact same age, the woman is younger than the man.

I think the Internet likely changed things or accelerated some trends, but I'm not a social scientist. But this shouldn't surprise anyone. There's the semi-confirmed belief that women mature faster than men (emotionally/socially) that has stood in to explain this for decades, who knows, it might even be true.

Yea they date older men or other women.

Or multiple women dating the same man, either knowingly, or thinking they are the only one.

> How does that make sense? Are there significantly more young men than women? Or do the women date older men?

Yes, yes, and multiple women can "date" one man.

They date small pool of desirable men.