In 2015, one in four women and one in three men in their 30s were single, and half of the singles indicated that they were not interested in heterosexual relationships.
In turn, public health experts from the University of Tokyo found that those who weren’t interested in having a partner were more likely to have lower incomes and less education, potentially pointing to socioeconomic factors behind the market stagnation. Japanese dating .
Economy and love
The new analysis , published in Plos ONE, has used data collected by the Japan National Fertility Survey, a questionnaire designed and implemented approximately every five years between 1987 and 2015 by the Japan National Research Institute on Population and Social Security.
In 2015, there were 2.2 million more single women and 1.7 million more single men in Japan aged 18 to 39 compared to 1992 . In 1992, 27.4% of women and 40.4% of men in Japan aged 18 to 39 were single. By 2015, 40.7% of women and 50.8% of men of the same age range were single.
The research team speculates that the higher number of single men could be due to the fact that women, on average, were dating men older than themselves, such that many of their male partners were over 39 and therefore out. of the investigated age range.
Other interesting factors could be that Japan’s total population aged 18-39 includes more men, men are more likely to date more than one partner, or there are differences in the way men and women report their own marital status. .
Regardless of age, married men were more likely to have a regular job and have a higher income. For example, 32.2% of married men had an annual income of at least 5 million Japanese yen (about $ 48,000).
Marriage is often associated with higher income and education between women and men, but it is not known how these factors influence the interest of single people in romantic relationships.