Denver-Boulder emerges as best place for singles

BOULDER, Colo. – The Denver-Boulder area is the best place in the country for singles, with cheap beer, plenty of jobs and single, artistic, educated residents galore, according to a Forbes.com ranking.

Denver-Boulder graduated from last year’s second-place seat, knocking Austin, Texas, from first into third. In second place this year: the Washington-Baltimore area.

Boulder is a little squirt of a city compared with New York and Los Angeles. But its artsy, Bohemian culture and student population spearheaded the win, said Davide Dukcevich, staff writer for Forbes.com.

“The reason Denver does well is because of Boulder; without Boulder, it wouldn’t be in the top five,” Dukcevich said. “Boulder contributes a lot of coolness” – determined by the number of residents in creative professions, such as music and art.

While visiting Boulder several weeks ago, he said he was surprised to see a large group of people salsa dancing in the middle of the afternoon.

“Even in New York, you don’t see that,” Dukcevich said.

The Web site has applied its singles rankings to the 40 most populous, metropolitan areas in the continental United States for four years. Cities are ranked on seven criteria: culture, coolness, nightlife, jobs, the cost of living, the ratio of single people and readers’ opinions.

Denver-Boulder’s strongest point was culture (the number of museums, theaters, students and professional sports teams).

“How we gauge culture, most towns the size of Denver do poorly,” Dukcevich said. “It’s a raw numbers game, and it tends to favor large cities with a lot of different offerings. But Denver holds its own and actually wins.”

He said the key is that Denver-Boulder is strong in all categories, with no “Achilles’ heel.” Whereas New York has a hoppin’ nightlife, he said, its cost of living kicks the city down to eighth place.