Where the Boys Are - part 3

File under: demographics, Wellington

I said yesterday that there wasn't enough detail to update my "man drought" maps yet, but there is enough regional data to do some rough geographic analysis. I defined a couple of simple "man drought indices" (one for the 20-39 age group, and one for 25-49) based upon the ratio of men to women in each region. For instance, a drought index of 15% means that for every 100 men, there are 115 women, and one of -9% means that for every 100 men there are only 91 women. Here are the results across all the city and district councils (click to enlarge):

While most places do indeed suffer (if that's the word!) from a man drought, in other places it's the opposite. Most of the extra men are in rural areas, but for any women not willing to travel to the Chathams in search of a man, the Queenstown-Lakes District may be more to your liking. That may be due to an influx of hunky outdoors types from exotic locales, or it may be lonely, grizzled Southern Men. She's a hard road finding the perfect woman, son.

In the Wellington region, most cities are about as drought-stricken as the national average, but there's one anomaly: Upper Hutt. There's a very slight man drought in the 25-49 age group, but in the 20-39 cohort it's the only urban area to have more men than women. So there's hope for Wellington women, but also a catch: you'd better develop a taste for Holdens and black jeans.