I need current statistics on the number of single women living in the
United States. I'd like a break down of age groups, income levels
within age groups, and education levels. Single can include divorced
and/or widowed. Also, if there's a demographic that shows the biggest
concentration of single, educated women in the US, that would be very
helpful.

Thanks for asking!

The U.S. Census Bureau is the information source --  nationwide data
and state demographic reports are from 2000 and 2002 Current
Population Status (CPS). Education is reported by Householder only, so
may not be as accurate as you'd like. The Census bureau doesn't
cross-reference marital status and education attainment, so you'll
need to calculate one or the other from figures derived from the
separate reports, then apply the derived percentages to the figures
shown in the opposite report.


U.S. Census Bureau
Marital Status of People 15 Years and Over, by Age, Sex, Personal
Earnings, Race, and Hispanic Origin/1, March 2002

All Races (Excel format)
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2002/tabA1-all.xls

All Races (.pdf format)
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2002/tabA1-all.pdf

All Races (CSV - Comma Separated Values - format)
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2002/tabA1-all.csv

Each report is available in the three formats listed above, none of
which can be printed here in any useful manner.


Average Number of People per Household, by Race and Hispanic Origin,
Marital Status, Age, and Education of Householder: March 2002

Excel Format
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2002/tabAVG1.xls

PDF Format
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2002/tabAVG1.pdf

CSV Format
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2002/tabAVG1.csv



Personally, I find the 2000 reports more usable, because the data is
cross-referenced.

Table A1.  Marital Status of People 15 Years and Over, by Age, Sex,
Personal Earnings, Race, and Hispanic Origin, March 2000

Plain text (ASCII) version 
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/p20-537/2000/tabA1.txt


Family Households, by Type, Age of Own Children, Educational
Attainment, and Race and Hispanic Origin of Householder: March 2000

Plain text (ASCII) version 
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/p20-537/2000/tabF2.txt 

You'll find a long list of CPS reports listed here:

Children?s Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2002
Detailed Tables for Current Population Report, P20-547 
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2002.html



I've taken the most recent State demographics datafile into Excel
format, and added two columns that calculate total single women per
state, and percentage of the state's total population.

The top ten states are:

District of Columbia  --  68.18%
Rhode Island          --  49.23%
New York              --  49.17%
Louisiana             --  48.88%
Massachusetts         --  48.77%
Mississippi           --  48.22%
Maryland              --  46.91%
New Mexico            --  46.85%
Illinois              --  46.64%
Michigan              --  46.61%

Idaho has the lowest percentage of single women, the only state under
40% at 39.64.

The complete Excel file is available for download. Right click on the
link below and choose Save Target As.

http://68.15.21.151/uploads/researchers/single_demographics.xls

Search Strategy
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Search of the U.S. Census website

Google search terms:

demographics OR statistics women "marital status" "education attainment" age 

I hope you find these statistics useful. If you have questions about
the information or links provided, please, feel free to ask.


---larre

Amazing!

This must imply that the US also has the largest population of single
men, although (presumably) there would be far fewer single men than
single women due to woman's greater longevity.