Read the following extract from a recent report from the U.S.

Real life is more complicated, of course, but this simple model illustrates an important truth. In the marriage market, numbers matter. And among African-Americans, the disparity is much worse than in Mr Harford’s imaginary example. Between the ages of 20 and 29, one black man in nine is behind bars. For black women of the same age, the figure is about one in 150. For obvious reasons, convicts are excluded from the dating pool. And many women also steer clear of ex-cons, which makes a big difference when one young black man in three can expect to be locked up at some point.

Removing so many men from the marriage market has profound consequences. As incarceration rates exploded between 1970 and 2007, the proportion of US-born black women aged 30-44 who were married plunged from 62% to 33%. Why this happened is complex and furiously debated. The era of mass imprisonment began as traditional mores were already crumbling, following the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the invention of the contraceptive pill. It also coincided with greater opportunities for women in the workplace. These factors must surely have had something to do with the decline of marriage.

But jail is a big part of the problem, argue Kerwin Kofi Charles, now at the University of Chicago, and Ming Ching Luoh of National Taiwan University. They divided America up into geographical and racial “marriage markets”, to take account of the fact that most people marry someone of the same race who lives relatively close to them. Then, after crunching the census numbers, they found that a one percentage point increase in the male incarceration rate was associated with a 2.4-point reduction in the proportion of women who ever marry. Could it be, however, that mass incarceration is a symptom of increasing social dysfunction, and that it was this social dysfunction that caused marriage to wither? Probably not. For similar crimes, America imposes much harsher penalties than other rich countries. Mr Charles and Mr Luoh controlled for crime rates, as a proxy for social dysfunction, and found that it made no difference to their results. They concluded that “higher male imprisonment has lowered the likelihood that women marry…and caused a shift in the gains from marriage away from women and towards men.”

http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15867956

In Nigeria, there over 50,000 men in prison and these men left behind girlfriends and wives who are now desperately seeking companionship from other men. So they join the pool of hundreds of thousands of other single women who are searching for men to date and marry.

Let us add the girlfriends and widows of the thousands of Nigerian Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) soldiers killed during the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Then include the thousands languishing in hellish police cells all over Nigeria. All these unfortunate victims of forseen and unforseen circumstances had sweethearts who must continue with their lives.

Then finally, how can millions of jobless single women date and marry millions of equally jobless single men in Nigeria?
Therefore, the millions of jobless single women are desperately chasing the gainfully employed single or married men to make ends meet.
So a gainfully employed single man is now facing 6 to 10 single women who have no other man available to date or marry.

There is scarcity of eligible bachelors and the cause has nothing to do with the SPIRIT OF LATE MARRIAGE or whatever many opportunistic pastors have been using to lure desperate single women to their churches and milk them dry of their hard earned money in the guise of sowing for the miracle of getting married.
Tell the pastors to go and set the bond men in jail free and then give jobs to the millions of jobless single men first and stop preaching lies to single women in Nigeria.

For every single woman who gets married, there is another woman with a broken heart caused by the same man you are calling husband.

There are more single women than single men in these interesting times of economic, social and political vicissitudes.

SHARING IS CARING.

Hahahahahaha. . . .

A certain member called OYINDA should read this article.

maybe your topic should read

"WHY" instead of "WHEN".

i think i can agree with this article. however, this is just one of the numerous factors and not the sole reason.
one impressive one is that there are more women than men. basically

In Nigeria finance plays an important role in marraige ,Not the men in prison.In Nigeria big men dont go to jail,so who are the people in jail,your analysis is not correct.In nigeria  ,the prison is filled up with people with  crime of needs or basic ,only few murders,despoil.What you hear is robbery.Even assassins are never caught.And the birth rate is high and women are many.

Power outage interrupted me earlier. But I have completed it now.

We cannot escape from the present realities in Nigeria and the U.S.

We do not have enough eligible single men for our single women.

Six single women may have to share one man or languish in loneliness.

that's the way it's always been.

Interesting, this explains the high rate of lesbianism in nigeria
I foresee the act of Ménage à Troi growning rapidly next

You just had to include the pastors dint you instead of directing troubling issues to the politicians you tryna rub it on a particular religion. . .anyhows nice research (except the pastor post ofcourse) but even at that, it's still extremely hard to find what most people refer to as ''wife material'' and the ''prettys'' are been chased by so many flashy cars. . .odd isnt it?

IMHO, every unmarried woman above 32 once had their chance (had a real relationship) and they blew it, prolly waiting for the rich and mighty or rather the so successful boyfriend, the ready-made. whatever happened to building from scratch?? so i kinda doubt da jail thing has so much effect on their marital status, they have their self to blame. Seriously

Wow,

steve49ja:

You just had to include the pastors dint you instead of directing troubling issues to the politicians you tryna rub it on a particular religion. . .anyhows nice research (except the pastor post ofcourse) but even at that, it's still extremely hard to find what most people refer to as ''wife material'' and the ''prettys'' are been chased by so many flashy cars. . .odd isnt it?

IMHO, every unmarried woman above 32 once had their chance (had a real relationship) and they blew it, prolly waiting for the rich and mighty or rather the so successful boyfriend, the ready-made. whatever happened to building from scratch?? so i kinda doubt da jail thing has so much effect on their marital status, they have their self to blame. Seriously

Pastors should tell the truth and not exploiting the ignorance of the single women looking for husbands.

Where are the ladies in the house, why aint you commenting on this interesting topic.

Spyker:

Where are the ladies in the house, why aint you commenting on this interesting topic.

even with the ratio of 7:1 or 6:1 ladies still try to play hard.

Spyker:

Where are the ladies in the house, why aint you commenting on this interesting topic.

even with the ratio of 7:1 or 6:1 ladies still try to play hard.

The pendulum does not swing in the favour of the ladies.
Men should do their best to help them so save them from depression.

[size=18pt]This is what too much GOAT MILK CAN CAUSE!! [/size]

190:

[size=18pt]This is what too much GOAT MILK CAN CAUSE!! [/size]

Of course, your problem is making you read Orikinla and improving your IQ.
His books are still available on Amazon online and at Glendora Bookshops at MMIA, Ikeja and Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria.
What your own Mama's goat milk may never give you forever.

SMILE.

Then finally, how can millions of jobless single women date and marry millions of equally jobless single men in Nigeria?
Therefore, the millions of jobless single women are desperately chasing the gainfully employed single or married men to make ends meet.
So a gainfully employed single man is now facing 6 to 10 single women who have no other man available to date or marry.

very thoughtful posting.

it invariably means many women would not have kids if they based this on one man, one wife ideology.

we should look back and ask ourselves; how did our fore-elders managed to handle this situation.

Orikinla:

Pastors should tell the truth and not exploiting the ignorance of the single women looking for husbands.

Want to turn this into a religious debate? why not put aside your personal belief. . .Pastors (real or false) has nothing to do with this!

Last time I checked ''opportunistic'' Alfas and Herbalists also claim such, forgot to include them up there?. The spiritual controls the physical (believe it or not) and one man's pomo is another man's sandal. Rich or poor, jailed or free, just as there'l always be rich and poor, there'l be married and unmarried. Everyone's got their fair chance/opportunity, how you handle it is your cup of tea. Nuf Said!

steve49ja:

anyhows nice research again (except the pastor post ofcourse)

steve49ja:

Want to turn this into a religious debate? why not put aside your personal belief. . .Pastors (real or false) has nothing to do with this!

Last time I checked ''opportunistic'' Alfas and Herbalists also claim such, forgot to include them up there?. The spiritual controls the physical (believe it or not) and one man's pomo is another man's sandal. Rich or poor, jailed or free, just as there'l always be rich and poor, there'l be married and unmarried. Everyone's got their fair chance/opportunity, how you handle it is your cup of tea. Nuf Said!

The more reason why pastors must be included in the ongoing & interestin debate

Okay, the pastors should be left out. But it would be good if our single women and men are told the simple truth based on prevailing economic, social and political realities. Husbands do not drop from the sky.

FORM THE UK:
Young women 'don't want to marry jobless young men during the recession'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241558/Women-decide-marrying-unemployed-young-men-recession.html#ixzz0dg8kkVf0

SINCE THEY DO NOT WANT TO MARRY JOBLESS YOUNG MEN, THEY ARE NOW CHASING THE FEW GAINFULLY EMPLOYED MEN.

This is a very interesting Reality, whats more interesting though is how cool so many single Ladies women out there actually act like they are not at all bothered about the possibility that they might never get married, i respect and pity them at the same time. Yet a lot (those who think they wld remain pretty 4eva) still play games around even when they have a good thing going on with a man who really loves her and might be considering asking her to be his wife. Gosh, WOMEN ARE SO COMPLICATED.

Even bible talk am say,in the last days seven women go hold on to the skirt of one man Isaiah4:1

adetoru:

Even bible talk am say,in the last days seven women go hold on to the skirt of one man Isaiah4:1

Are you ready to hold my skirt now??

adetoru:

Even bible talk am say,in the last days seven women go hold on to the skirt of one man Isaiah4:1

Are you ready to hold my skirt now??

mama-gee:

There's calamity in the land.

Mama gee don't be afraid coz my seventh isn't yet complet. I will make you my 4th ok?

mama-gee:

There's calamity in the land.

Mama gee don't be afraid coz my seventh isn't yet complet. I will make you my 4th ok?

Its a continous issue on my path, but i always prefer one to the rest.

New International Version (©1984)
In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, "We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!"

You reap what you sow--how the dating behaviors African-American in their teens come back to hunt them when they become adults.

The problem in America starts right from middle through high school. Majority of American black women are attracted to the losers and unintellectual kids, effectively alienating the articulate and intelligent black kids. These women also chase after material things excessivley at a very young age, so, rather than staying in school and attending college, many of these young black male kids drop out of high school to sell drugs and commit crimes to make money that will be used to attract young black females, and therein part of the problem lies. As a matter of fact, black women label young black men who speak properly and are academically brilliant as acting white. Since an estimated 70% of black children grow up in single parent homes, many young women do not know how to identify masculine traits; instead, many of these girls think that  a black man who breaks the law or portrays an outward bravado, sometimes colloquially referred to as swag, is displaying a desirable a masculine trait.

When these young women now become adults of marriageable age, they now seek a successful black men to date. The problem is that these women have forgotten that during their teenage years, their dating behavior inherently discouraged young black men to be successful, because they were seeking the unintellectual and irresponsible black man. In essence, their dating habits during their teenage years have come back to hunt them in their adulthood, for many of the intelligent black men whom they did not desire are now married to white women (white women love articulate black men, even at a young age). And since they did not seek responsible traits in black men at a young age, such as  performing well academically, many young black men do not want to perform well academically or attend college because many young black men fear that young black women will find them unattractive if they perform well academically. Unfortunately, these women would rather date thugs. Lesson: you reap what you sow, and these black women are surely reaping what they sow. Unless the dating behaviors of black women change, the problem will worsen.