The States of Love

Washington: Seattle has the largest percentage of women living alone in the United States.


Utah: The Beehive State has the highest number of married-couple families—more than 61 percent.


Nevada: Las Vegas, the wedding capital, issues an average of 120,000 marriage licenses each year. But love turns out to be the biggest gamble: The state has the country's highest divorce rate.

North Dakota: Not guilty—all 23,000 of you: Before March of 2007, 4 percent of this border state's residents were committing a sex crime. That's when legislators voted to repeal the law prohibiting cohabitation without marriage. Similar laws still exist in Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.


Arkansas: This state wants you to say "I do" and mean it: The governor declared a "state of marital emergency" in 2000 and suggested offering tax credits to couples who take a marital course; Florida requires high school students to take a similar class. Not coincidentally, they're among the 10 states with the highest divorce rates (the others are Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming).

Michigan:According to Michigan law, adultery could be considered a felony, punishable by life in prison. Lawmakers have yet to enforce the law (and so far have no plans to rewrite the statute).

Indiana: Highest percentage of single people in one city: Bloomington (58 percent).

Ohio: In the 1980s, the Buckeye Singles Council declared Unmarried and Single Americans Week. The now nationwide celebration (held September 16 to 22, in 2007) promotes equal rights, respect, and fairness for unwed workers, consumers, taxpayers, and voters.

Connecticut: The lowest marriage rate—only 24.2 per 1,000 single women—takes the "connect" right out of Connecticut.

Massachusetts: The lowest divorce rate in the nation, as well as one of the states where same-sex marriage is legal.

Washington, D.C.: Where the boys aren't: our capital—89.2 men per 100 women; Rhode Island and Maryland—93.1 men per 100 women. Where the boys are: Nevada—103.2 men to 100 women, followed by Arkansas and Colorado.

New York: Yankee Stadium, nuptial heaven—and hell. Marriage proposals on the scoreboard per game: at least one. Times a year someone calls "frantically" and cancels their scheduled proposal: at least five.