BACHELOR TOWNS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4645, 7 January 1924, Page 1

BACHELOR TOWNS.

ENGLISH STATISTICS.

Marriage has no geographical boundaries, but there are, nevertheless, areas in England where the bachelor flourishes, and others where Mie Benedict is in the ascendant. Ln smaller towns, like St. Helens and Bootle, for instance, there is a very high percentage of bachelors; <n Bradford it is very low.

It might be thought that St. Helens has 610 bachelors out of every 101’9" males because in this town there is a, deficiency of 50 wives for every 1000 possible husbands; but this process-of deduction is not to be depended upon, for a high excess of females does not necessarily mean a high marriage rate. It often means nothing more than a wider area of choice for the male, and a still more fastidious taste ’in selection.

In Liverpool, for example, the females exceed the males by 94 per 1000, yet that city has the highest proportion of bachelors of any large town in the country. Liverpool is the true bachelor city, with 598 single males out of every 1000. The nearest <to it is Middlesbrough, with a ratio of 582 (and a minority of women), Birkenhead 581, Sunderland 581, Newcastle 578, and Hull 560. The general average for London is 547.

Woolwich and Bradford have the smallest percentages of marriageable women. Bradford has also the minimum number of bachelors (only 490 per, 1000 males), and next to it comes Southport (497), Nottingham (518), Coventry (524), Derby (525), and Leeds (528).' Leeds appears to be one of the best balanced communities in respect of the' marriageable population. Its single males number 528 and its single females 524 per 10001 In Bristol the proportions are even better (540 and 542), and in Worcester and Exeter the difference is only 3 per 1000.

7n relation to its own supply of marriagable girls Plymouth has the greatest excess of bachelors. Of all the large towns Birmingham has the highest ‘ excess of single girls over bachelors.