Interview Transcript Available Below

Jon Birger is a magazine writer and contributor to Fortune Magazine. Jon is also the author of Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game. In this book he explains the reason behind the lop-sided dating demographics and the decline in marriage rates with a focus in one chapter on the Jewish and Latter-day Saint religions. A big shout out to Geoff Openshaw from This Week in Mormons that helped conduct the interview. Go listen and subscribe to his podcast!

Episode Summary:

* 5:56 Date-onomics looks at the demographics of why dating may be more challenging for women vs. men.

* 7:12 For the last fifteen years there have been four women graduating college for every three men.

* 7:48 There is a college gender gap that is responsible for the decline in marriages for educated women.

* 8:22 What is the scarcity rule and how is that effecting dating influences?

* 9:32 In Date-onomics Jon studied the secular world and how they can be less susceptible to outside cultural influences.

* 12:55 The gender ratio in the Latter-day Saint faith.

* 14:00 Is there a marriage crisis within the Latter-day Saint and Orthodox Jewish faith?

* 15:36 For the Latter-day Saints living in Utah, there is a gender gap. There is a 60/40 ratio women to men.

* 16:00 The gender ratio affects our behavior.

* 18:04 The ratio can cultivate very picky men.

* 19:49 Data suggest that in all religions women tend to be more devout then men.

* 20:31 Approximately 30 to 40 percent of LDS young men go on missions.

* 21:50 Most men who fall away from organized religion are between their late teen years to their twenties.

* 23:03 The age change for LDS missions reflected a surge of those choosing to go.

* 25:00 Why Millennials don’t date?

* 26:01 Millennial men are not happy couch potatoes. Case in point is Silicon Valley.

* 27:07 The Bay area in California has more men graduating from college than women. The marriage rates are much higher and divorce rates are very low.

* 28:52 Millennials are marrying late because of a faith crisis, not a dating crisis. This has become a demographics issue.

* 30:05 The science in Date-onomics shows how some of these patterns are hard wired within us. This is based on the demographics problem.

* 31:02 To shift the demographics slant, help encourage young men to stay active in the church.

* 33:11 The gender gap is not as great outside of Utah. Young men who do not serve missions may feel less ostracized outside Utah.

* 36:09 Elder Scott, “If you are a young man of appropriate age and are not married, don’t waste time in idle pursuits. Get on with life and focus on getting married. Don’t just coast through this period of life."

* 38:21 Freshman classes at BYU are 60/40 women to men due to LDS missions.

* 39:25 If college graduates were willing to date non-college graduates, the gender ratio may not be as bad.

* 41:46 As men age, they become locked into their ways and more rigid.

* 42:36 The plastic surgery surge in Utah can be contributed to the lop-sided demographics.

* Suggested Solutions:

* 45:47 Do not assume millennials are not marrying because of laziness.

* 46:45 Make gender ratios a consideration when choosing a college.

* 49:16 College educated women can expand their dating pool to include non-college educated men.

* 50:26 Avoid the musical chairs syndrome.

Links:

* Date-onomics Book

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