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This just in: Right in time for Valentine's Day, we're getting data-backed confirmation that dating in New York absolutely sucks.
At least that's according to Time Out's latest global survey, in which we asked 18,500 city folk what they thought about their dating lives, specifically how easy it was to find love in their respective cities. Let's just say the dating situation for New York is not looking cute.
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The survey asked thousands of people if they thought finding love in their city was easy. Out of the worst cities for finding love, New York came in fifth place, tying L.A., with a meager 26% of locals proclaiming they felt it was easy to find love.
If you don't live in New York, you might be confused—There are millions of people here, and probably just as many ways to meet strangers. We're chalking it up to the apps and the fact that having so many "options" means we're constantly looking for the next hottest person. Whatever the real reason is, it probably doesn't say anything good about us.
The good news is that New York didn't come in first—that dishonor was given to the Spanish city of Bilbao, where just 14% of inhabitants said it was easy to find love. Tokyo came in second, where 21% of people found their love lives easy. Hong Kong came in third, at 23% and Marseilles, France came in fourth, with just 25% of locals being satisfied with their love lives.
But if one thing is true about New Yorkers, is that we're not quitters, no matter how many times we're disappointed. For anyone who is a hopeless romantic, there's lots of romantic things you can do around the city to find love, like going to a smell-based matchmaking show or checking out the orchids at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where you might meet the love of your life while you frolic through a field of flowers. Are we delusional? Maybe. But if you live in this city by choice, you probably are, too.
If you want to take a more drastic approach, though, maybe it's worth taking a peek at the cities that ranked the highest in our love study, which included Mumbai, Beijing, and here in the U.S. New Orleans. You can always leave for a few months to find your boo and drag them back to our icy, cold city.
Here are the top 10 cities from our rankings.
The worst cities for finding love, according to locals
1. Bilbao, Spain: 14%
2. Tokyo, Japan: 21%
3. Hong Kong: 23%
4. Marseille, France: 25%
5. Los Angeles, USA: 26%
= New York City, USA: 26%
7. Brisbane, Australia: 28%
= London, UK: 28%
9. Sydney, Australia: 29%
10. Vienna, Austria: 31%
The best cities for finding love, according to locals
1. Mumbai, India: 72%
2. Beijing, China: 69%
3. Jakarta, Indonesia: 66%
4. Shanghai, China: 65%
5. Colombia, Medellin: 64%
6. Abu Dhabi, UAE: 63%
7. New Orleans, USA: 56%
= Amsterdam, Netherlands: 56%
9. Bangkok, Thailand: 54%
10. Cape Town, South Africa: 53%