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Bendigo has the highest proportion of single women compared to single men in Victoria.
Across all age groups, there are almost 28,000 singletons and women outnumber men by 10 per cent.
The gender divide grows with age – more than 60 per cent of all singles aged 30 are women.
The statistics did not surprise students at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus – about two-thirds of enrolments are female.
"A lot of girls who move here to study stay on, whereas a lot of guys leave," Megan Young, 27, said.
"Girls reach that age where they get settled and buy a house, get a job."
She said Bendigo was an easy to live in for women.
"It's easy to meet friends and have coffee; that influenced my staying here."
Single student Bronwyn Smith, 25, agreed.
"Bendigo is a very girl-orientated town," she said.
Mark Chapman, 28, also single, said the gender gap was noticeable on campus.
"There are definitely more girls at uni," he said.
But he had noticed a difference in the city's entertainment precinct at night.
"There's an extremely competitive and aggressive environment in bars and pubs,"
Mr Chapman said.
"That's when fights break out among the guys, and women are less likely to go out in that environment."
He said to be in the market, you needed to be involved in a sports club.
Mark Fitzgerald, 22, who plays with Sandhurst Football Club, said that was not necessarily the case, but sports clubs were good for socialising.
"Netball and football clubs are a good way to form relationships," he said.
"Not just pick up, but meet people."
He said people who moved to the area, particularly if they were older, had it harder.
"If you come from out of town, Bendigo can be pretty close-knit, and it would be hard for outsiders to come in," he said.
"If you go to uni, you can be in the uni circle.
"But the 30-plus genre is more established, and if you're out of the loop, you don't meet people."
There were more single women than men in Victoria as a whole.
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