Male-female singles in cities

Whether one agrees with Richard Florida’s “creative class” arguments or not, his CreativeClass website presents some lively, informative maps and diagrams displaying his ideas about how certain cities and areas are attracting innovative people and therefore becoming the economic and cultural powerhouses of the future.

But along the way, they also break out the stats on such less-brain-powered topics as the male-female dating ratio in many cities (not surprisingly, Dallas-Fort Worth is majorly male — interestingly, the entire country leans female to the east, male to the west). Oddest of all, perhaps, are the “personality maps” — in which Dallas-Fort Worth doesn’t figure at all as an “agreeable people” kind of place, an “extroverted” place, a “neurotic” place, a “conscientious” or even an “open to experience” kind of place.

So what the heck are we? I asked my wife. She suggested: “a flat place.”

More seriously, the “human capital” map, showing the distribution of people with at least bachelor’s degrees, does not give one much hope for North Texas. The Hill Country has a much denser and more extensive spread. So does Denver. One of the few maps which makes the area look good? Housing costs. Although housing affordability appears to be true of almost any place between Waco and St. Louis.