Why the Golden State offers golden opportunities for singles to find their soulmate

Notice to all single people in California: You’re in the right state if you want to change that.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, a new study says the Golden State offers the most opportunity for singles.

California ranks No. 1 overall on WalletHub’s “Best & Worst States for Singles” study. With a score of 66.75, it ranks ahead of Florida (65.09) and New York (64.16). Arkansas is the worst at 34.47.

In terms of cities, Sacramento was 44th overall on the “Best & Worst Cities for Singles” list, which surveyed 182 U.S. cities. California’s capital was fifth in the state behind San Francisco (No. 1 overall), Los Angeles (third), San Diego (fifth) and San Jose (34th).

So what makes California such an attractive state for singles? Quite a bit, actually.

Using 27 indicators to come up with a score, the state ranks No. 1 overall in several of them: online-dating participation, restaurants per capita, nature parks and other similar institutions per capita, fitness and recreational facilities per capita and number of attractions. It also ranks in the top 10 in six other indicators.

On the downside, there are seven categories where California falls into the bottom 10, including online dating safety/cyber crime rate per 10,000 residents (45th), unemployment rate among singles (47th) and movie costs (last).

WalletHub, a site which specializes in credit reports, used data from several sources – including the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, FBI, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Yelp, Tinder and TripAdvisor – to conduct the studies.

This story was originally published February 13, 2018 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Why the Golden State offers golden opportunities for singles to find their soulmate."