I’m sure you won’t be surprised that St. Louis did not make the top 10 list for the best cities to be single in, in a recent survey by Kiplingers.com. I bet you will be surprised by some of the cities that did make the list.

In my situation, it doesn’t matter because I recently moved back to St. Louis from Jerusalem, Israel so that I could spend more time with my family. I’m not going anywhere right now. But for those who do not feel tied down to St. Louis, and for whom getting married is a top priority, this list might be of interest to you. (Unfortunately it’s not a list of top 10 best cities for Jewish singles…but I suspect if these cities made the list of the top 10, there are plenty of Jewish singles there as well. At least for some of the cities that should be the case.)

Here is the lowdown:

“Finding the best cities for singles goes beyond simply identifying the places with the highest percentage of bachelors and bachelorettes. Financial factors count, too. After all, you’ll want to meet someone who can afford to date, right? 

“To put together our list of best cities for singles, we took into account income and living costs. The cities that made the final cut boast household income levels well above the Census Bureau average of $49,536. The cost-of-living score — derived from Council for Community and Economic Research data — indicates essential costs, including rent. A high score is acceptable as long as it’s offset by attractive incomes and a strong dating pool.

“Finally, we added what we dubbed a date-night tab: the average cost of two movie tickets plus a bottle of wine. Use the amount to budget for your next night out. Take a tour of our top-10 cities for singles.

“We screened cities based on the percentage of unmarried households because many otherwise great places to live are heavily populated by happily wedded couples, not swinging singles. We limited our list to cities with unmarried households comfortably above the average of 49.4 percent.” 

— Caitlin Dewey, Kiplinger.com 

And…here’s the list: 

1. Ann Arbor, Mich.
2. Bloomington, Ill.
3. Santa Cruz, Calif.
4. Baltimore 
5. Los Angeles
6. Philadelphia
7. Trenton, N.J.
8. New York City
9. Durham, N.C.
10. Iowa City, Iowa