# Mundane question of the week: What % of the population is undateable? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 13, 2000, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-question-of-the-week-what-of-the-population-is-undateable/25440 "2000-07-13T15:09:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-question-of-the-week-what-of-the-population-is-undateable/25440/41 "2001-06-24T02:09:47Z")
See, teh real crux of the problem for Swiddles is I’m all the way over here in Australia. If I was wherever the heck she is, this thread wouldn’t be happening. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-question-of-the-week-what-of-the-population-is-undateable/25440/42 "2001-06-24T02:40:28Z")
Montfort: > [@](#): > > Of course, I’ve also noticed that women in DC are generally more attractive than a smaller town. Maybe it’s just my personal preference for “professional” looking women, I dunno. I go for urban chic more than rural chic, in general, though. Suburbs are the best, however. Might have partially been the excitement from being on my own in a new city, but in my opinion the women in Chicago tend to be more attractive than in DC! More short skirts, and not nearly as many dried-up, dowdy-looking types. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-question-of-the-week-what-of-the-population-is-undateable/25440/43 "2001-06-24T04:00:51Z")
Considering that I’m thirtysomething, single, straight, moderately attractive, a working professional and don’t have any glatring shortcomings (social ineptitude, axe murderer, etc.), I would expect to have women beating down my door. Nope. Instead of using **all** women in my statistical analysis, I’m going to consider those only in the 28-38 age group. (I’m 35). Here goes … - Seems like 80% of all women in my age group are “taken,” either because they’re married or dating. That leaves 20%. - About 50% of those remaining are ineligible, because I find them to be physically unattractive – either because they have that hard, weathered trailer park look, or, to be PC, they “outsize” me. Among all women in my age group, I’d find maybe 30% unattractive, but consider that a higher percentage of “attractive” people are dating or married than “unattractive” people. Another 10% are “out of my league” – the’re an 8, 9 or 10 on the IEEE standard scale of attractiveness, and would probably would consider a 6 like me to be slummin’ it, or they consider 5’10" to be “short.” 8% remain. - 33% of the remaining women wouldn’t consider me good dating material because I’m “too poor.” In one online dating site, I found my number of matches to increase by about 50% when I upped my income to “$50K to $75K.” A lot of women wouldn’t dream of dating a man with an income lower than theirs. 5.36% left. - 40% of those remaining are single moms. At this point, I don’t want to raise and support another man’s children. 3.216% left. This seems about right – in online dating sites, I find maybe one of 30 profiles to be “compatible.” Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-question-of-the-week-what-of-the-population-is-undateable/25440/44 "2001-06-24T04:04:51Z")
> [@](#): > > and don’t have any glatring shortcomings … except the inability to post a message to the SDMB that doesn’t have at least one typo. ---
**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2001, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-question-of-the-week-what-of-the-population-is-undateable/25440/45 "2001-06-24T06:14:58Z")
I had trouble passing Statistics in college and now my resentment toward the subject has deepened. This thread was terribly depressing to me: it helped confirm my suspicion that my dateability potential is excruciatingly low. I can only hope that the old adage is true: _There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mundane-question-of-the-week-what-of-the-population-is-undateable/25440.md?page=2)