From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!cbosgd!nscs!rew
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: Proportion of Potential Mates in a Population
Article-I.D.: nscs.344
Posted: Mon Sep 20 15:46:58 1982
Received: Tue Sep 21 07:39:26 1982


Since I am prima facie unqualified for this group (I'm married)
I feel obligated to contribute (that's how its done, right?).
While one cannot know the exact proportion of potential
mates in a population for certain, we can draw some conclusions
from data on just who gets married (this leaves out casual
encounters, of course).  People get married primarily on the
basis of propinqui.  That is, they marry people they run
into a lot, talk to and get aquainted with.  This suggests
that the proportion of potential mates in any population is
quite high.  If it was low, one would expect the proportion
of people marrying relative 'strangers' to be high.  Instead,
there is a good deal of marrying the person next door.  One
could, of course, believe in destiny bringing them all together.
The formal studies that produced these data (about propinquity,
not destiny - sorry) merely corroborate older folk wisdom
on the subject.  All those parents who used to put their
offspring into fraternities and sororities so they would
meet the 'right kind' of person apparently knew what they were
doing on some level.  

Bob Warren
cbosg!nscs!rew