One of my cousins sent me the link to an article posted in the AJC titled 50 Best Cities for Love. The AJC pulled the link from the article in the Daily Beast, but their article highlights where Atlanta ranks on the list.
However, the Daily Beast has the complete listing of all 50 cities.
The data that was used to rank the cities is:
To find which cities provide the best backdrop for luring love, The Daily Beast ranked the country’s largest cities based on a high prevalence of marriage, a low incidence of divorce, a relatively happy population and a wealth of bars and restaurants to meet and woo a significant other.
Atlanta ranked #16, out of 50. Here are the grades by category:
Singles: C
Social life: C
Emotional health: A
Marriage: A
Divorce: F
To score a C for Singles and Social Life means that Atlanta is average at best.
"..considered the percentage of the population comprised of single adults to measure each city’s date-ability."
I guess there is not much wooing going on here in Atlanta.
I think, and this is my just my opinion, but I think that Atlanta gets a C for Singles, because there are just toooooo many options here. At times, being single can be like a kid in a candy store or going to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Why settle for one item, when there are so many to choose from?
Oh yeah, I thought Atlanta had it going on with the hotspots and the night life. Well, not according to this report. Again, we're just average. A lot of that is probably due to the law that Atlanta has to stop serving alcohol by a certain time, therefore a lot night life spots close early. We are definitely not the city that never sleeps.
On a happier note, the report does give us a pretty high grade (A) in being emotionally happy.
"...looked at the happiness quotient of each place’s residents, according to the most recent Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which measures physical and emotional health and healthy behaviors via survey. Studies show that happy people are more open to relationships and a positive outlook is more attractive."
Could our high score in Emotional Health be because there are some good career opportunities here in Atlanta? Making money should not be the source of happiness, but it does have some affect on it.
Or could it be because we have that good ole down-home, southern charm personality? You know the personality that speaks to everybody, waves at every car that drives through the neighborhood, walk into your neighbor's house without knocking (this applies to true southerners, not transplants from elsewhere), go to everybody's house, without an invitation because everybody is invited anyway, for a backyard BBQ.
We just naturally have the southern charm. And it could be, and I know this resonates with me, that it is because we are in the 'Bible Belt' and because we love the Lord, love to worship and praise on, we are just plain ole happy.
And the men in Atlanta say that the women are crazy, while the women are saying that the men are crazy. Well, let's just say with everybody being crazy, we're all happy.....
And yes, we are more open to relationships. Actually being and finding a good one, is where the 'C' comes in.
Marriage scores an A, while we flunk in Divorces, F ....
Okay, maybe this is just the analytical side of me, but isnt that a contradiction? To say that Atlanta is a great place for marriages, but um, oh yeah, there's a good chance that it may not last because they have a high divorce rate.....Doesn't make much sense to me.
".....looked at the percentage of the total married population who walked down the aisle in 2009 to consider how marriage-minded each city’s residents are at present. And, we measured the success of each city’s betrothals by looking at the number of divorces in 2009 compared to the total married population."
According to this, why would I want to get married in a place that has a high level of divorce? Folks here are marriage-minded, but it seems as if there are just as many divorce-minded ones too. I need to have some balance, a happy medium here...Meet me in the middle, at best.
So, there you have it, folks, Atlanta ranking #16 out of 50 on the 50 Best Cities for Love list.
The top 10 cities on the list for love are:
1. San Antoino, Tx 2. Milwaukee, WI 3. Austin, Tx 4. Virginia Beach, VA 5. San Diego, CA 6. Boston, MA 7. New Orleans, LA 8. Hartford, CT 9. Cleveland, OH 10. Portland, OR
Check out the list to see there individual score cards and also to see if your city even made the cut and if so, how did it score.
