It's been a long time since single adulthood was just a hurried way station between adolescence and marriage. Today the median age of first marriage is rising for both men and women, and singles make up 41% of American adults 18 and over. In fact, most Americans can expect to spend fully half of their adult lives unmarried.
Singles are an increasingly diverse group. Being unmarried these days could mean living with an opposite-sex partner--as 9.8 million Americans did in 2005--or becoming a single mother by choice rather than necessity, a growing trend. Only about one-third of America's 90 million unmarrieds live alone, and about 14% of single adults are over the age of 65. As what it means to be single changes, the growing economic clout of singles as a class means that cities can ill afford to lose them, as sociologist Richard Florida argues in The Rise of the Creative Class.
So what lucky cities stand the best chance of attracting this crucial class? Forbes.com answered that question in their seventh annual Best Cities for Singles special report. They looked at 40 of the largest urbanized areas in the country and judged them on culture, nightlife, job growth, the cost of living alone, online dating, the number of other singles and that ever-elusive quality, cool.
Minneapolis tied for twelfth overall, but here's a look at how we ranked in each individual category:
#12 Minneapolis-St. Paul
*** Note our top 10 ranking in the ever-elusive "cool" quality! :) ***
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And here's how we rank by comparison:
| Rank | City | Culture | Nightlife | Singles | Job Growth | Living Cost | Online |
| 1 | San Francisco-Oakland | 1 | 2 | 5 | 23 | 20 | 5 |
| 2 | New York | 3 | 1 | 8 | 30 | 24 | 3 |
| 3 | Los Angeles | 2 | 3 | 4 | 28 | 24 | 11 |
| 4 | Atlanta | 12 | 10 | 16 | 6 | 7 | 10 |
| 5 | Chicago | 4 | 4 | 12 | 32 | 22 | 2 |
| 6 | Washington | 6 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 30 | 19 |
| 7 | San Diego | 13 | 11 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 4 |
| 8 | Seattle | 17 | 12 | 24 | 11 | 3 | 20 |
| 9 | Dallas-Fort Worth | 9 | 7 | 37 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 10 | Philadelphia | 7 | 8 | 9 | 32 | 22 | 17 |
| 11 | Boston | 5 | 9 | 11 | 34 | 20 | 35 |
| 12 | Austin | 36 | 35 | 3 | 1 | 33 | 9 |
| 12 | Minneapolis-St. Paul | 9 | 20 | 15 | 20 | 28 | 25 |
| 14 | Houston | 23 | 18 | 29 | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| 15 | Phoenix | 14 | 13 | 26 | 13 | 5 | 13 |
| 16 | Denver-Aurora | 23 | 17 | 25 | 19 | 1 | 22 |
| 17 | New Orleans | 18 | 14 | 1 | 37 | 18 | 38 |
| 18 | Las Vegas | 33 | 15 | 31 | 2 | 30 | 12 |
| 19 | Columbus | 19 | 25 | 14 | 29 | 8 | 7 |
| 20 | Miami | 8 | 5 | 35 | 9 | 36 | 21 |
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