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Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday say for every 100 women, there are only 99 men.
This is old news to Sydney single Daniela Pintabona, who says working long hours and the lack of men are hurting her ability to get a date.
“There are definitely less men out there,” she says.
The 29-year-old project manager has been single for 15 months following the break up of a 4-year relationship. She was in two long-term relationships for a total of 10 years and as a result is “very much” new to the singles game.
“It's really hard. I do work long hours as well as during my spare time doing businessy type things and study. You start filling in your spare time doing so much stuff that you don't have time to go out and find someone,” she said.
She avoids the obvious singles services (“but you never know”), preferring to meet people through friends, work or networking websites like MySpace.
“I'm on MySpace ... and I didn't realise that's pretty much a dating website.”
As she approaches 30, Ms Pintabona says she finds herself seeking out a whole new group of single friends, with married and attached friends less likely to come out clubbing or to bars to find mates.
“You really get excluded ... There's a perception that (singles) want to party at all hours,” she said.
Maybe it's just that men, aware of the imbalance, are getting choosier, the ABS figures showing there were 97,000 more females than males in 2005. Back in 1955, men outnumbered women by 112,900- but the number of women started to overtake men in 1979.
“I think times have changed: women know what they want and men have no idea,” Ms Pintabona said.
Australia also lacks the dating culture of a country like the US and couples here tend to meet in chance encounters or as part of the same social group, she said.
Australians are also getting married later, with the median age for men reaching the altar now 32 (compared to 29 a decade ago) and 29 for women (up from 27).
Part of the reason behind the ageing of Australia's brides and grooms is that couples increasingly live together in defacto arrangements, while young people are typically staying in education for longer.
Ms Pintabona joked that her mother “wouldn't talk to me for months” after she broke up with one of her long-term boyfriends.
“I'm from an Italian background and (getting married is) probably one of my mother's dreams. It probably gets mentioned every day,” she said.
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