Julio Gonzalez Altamirano wants me "to mention my alternative map and data refuting Richard Florida's much discussed singles map." For those who don't know, Richard Florida, author of the Creative Class books, published a map yesterday showing a sharp imbalance in single across the nation. Basically, the West is full of single dudes, probably moving hay bales and programming computers, while the East is packed with single woman, most of them presumably writing dating columns and having expensive lunches with their friends. Here's the map (click to enlarge):
I didn't jump in on this one, as I remember a similar map going around a couple months ago, and being basically convinced that a map that didn't break anything down by class wasn't showing us anything useful. Too much of the disparity reflected imprisonment rates, immigration from male day laborers, elderly populations, etc. As Matt put it, "insofar as a large number of men from Mexico may have migrated to Southern California to work in construction while leaving their wives behind in the old country, a young Smith grad isn't all that likely to start up a relationship with them if she moves to San Diego." But Julio actually created a better map, correcting for this broad-brush analysis. "I used the 2006 American Community Survey data to examine the top 50 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) for a comparison of only females and male residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher," he writes. "I took education level as a proxy for 'creative class' status, though I recognize Florida’s work is more nuanced than that. I only included 18-44 year olds." Here's Julio's map:
I didn't jump in on this one, as I remember a similar map going around a couple months ago, and being basically convinced that a map that didn't break anything down by class wasn't showing us anything useful. Too much of the disparity reflected imprisonment rates, immigration from male day laborers, elderly populations, etc. As Matt put it, "insofar as a large number of men from Mexico may have migrated to Southern California to work in construction while leaving their wives behind in the old country, a young Smith grad isn't all that likely to start up a relationship with them if she moves to San Diego." But Julio actually created a better map, correcting for this broad-brush analysis. "I used the 2006 American Community Survey data to examine the top 50 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) for a comparison of only females and male residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher," he writes. "I took education level as a proxy for 'creative class' status, though I recognize Florida’s work is more nuanced than that. I only included 18-44 year olds." Here's Julio's map: 
