4.6% of men 25-29 are divorced
8% of men 30-34 are divorced
12% of men 35-44 are divorced
14.7% of men 45-54 are divorced

6.6% of women 25-29 are divorced
10.3% of women 30-34 are divorced
14.5% of women 35-44 are divorced
18% of women 45-54 are divorced

So if you add up the never been marrieds with the divorces then your dating pool increases to:

53.8% of men 25-29
37.6% of men 30-34
29.9% of men 35-44
24.4% of men 45-54

44.7% of women 25-29
39.9% of women 30-34
27.9% of women 35-44
26% of women 45-54

The percentage of widowed people in these age ranges was not significant enough for me to feel like posting all the info here. Only 3.7% of women 45-54 have been widowed, and none of the other groups have percentages higher than 1.3%.

That’s some pretty good research you did! As for me, I stay away from all statistics. Too depressing and scary- it makes me paranoid, and since I’m a bad actress all that uptight-ness shows on my face. Guys don’t dig paranoid chicks.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-11-09-delayed-marriage_N.htm?se=yahoorefer Article showing the latest census estimates of the median age men and women marry.

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_box_head_nbr=R1204&-ds_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-format=US-30&-mt_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_R1203_US30&-CONTEXT=grt Chart of median age of first marriage for men, by state

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_box_head_nbr=R1205&-ds_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-format=US-30&-mt_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_R1204_US30&-CONTEXT=grt Chart of median age of first marriage for women, by state

http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-30.pdf Census data on percentage of people never married, by age. Also has a map showing ratio of unmarried men to unmarried women by geographic area (down to counties).

Perhaps a little of both. As Evan has said numerous times, younger women tend to have more dating options than older women. And I think it’s helpful to think about how likely you are to find a good match further in the future. If you’re not yet at your peak and you’re dating someone who has 90% of what you’re looking for, you may hold out and think that there’s a good shot of getting more of what you want. But if you’re at your peak, or past your peak, and you find a guy who has 90% of what you’re looking for, then you may decide to keep him because the pickings are fewer and less likely to provide you with a 100% perfect match if you decide to look for a better match.

Though the attitude towards women in their thirties is more positive than I anticipated, I also am thinking about how typical our pool of people is here. If you’re not a stats junkie then you may just want to skip the rest of this post. The following statistics are all taken from the census.

Median age of first marriage for men: 27.5
Median age of first marriage for women: 25.6

Median age of first marriage varies by location. In D.C., NY, and MA the median for men is 29.9-30.0 while for men in UT and ID it’s 25.2. For women, it goes as high as 29.9 in D.C. and 28.5 in MA and as low as 22.8 in UT and 23.5 in ID.

49.2% of men 25-29 have never married
29.6% of men 30-34 have never married
17.9% of men 35-44 have never married
9.7% of men 45-54 have never married

38.1% of women 25-29 have never married
21.9% of women 30-34 have never married
13.4% of women 35-44 have never married
8% of women 45-54 have never married

Also, the ratio of unmarried men to women is staggering in some areas. If you’re a female who lives west of Texas, you’re in luck as there tend to be more unmarried guys than unmarried gals. But if you’re a female living east of Texas, good luck. Much (most?) of that area has a ratio 53.8-85.5 men to 100 women. Yikes!

Though there were quotes in various articles about how people with more education tend to wait longer before marrying, I couldn’t find any statistics on it.

So basically, we’re the outliers here. The OP is at the age when most women in America are marrying. I’m not saying, however, that all folks should be married by 25. I wasn’t ready at that point, and I don’t think every young marriage is necessarily advisable.

But looking at the numbers does show what Evan always tells us about limiting our options. If you’re looking for a guy who’s 35-44 and never been married, that’s less than 18% of all guys. Then you want a guy with a college education, which is 25.9% of all guys 35-44. Then you want a guy who’s 6 tall or more, which is only about 10% of the male population. So how many of that 18% are also in that 25.9% who are also in that 10%? And that’s not getting into what their personality’s like, what their interests are, and whether or not they’re interested in you.

So, am I totally off base here? What do you think?

P.S. I’ll post the links to the reports from which I got my evidence in a separate post (I know how you feel about multiple posts, Evan, but my last post with links to the evidence quoted never got posted).