This post from another thread got me thinking on how picky is picky.
There are, give or take, 7 Billion people on this planet. That's 7,000,000,000.
If you don't have ANY standards, that's
7 Billion. There's a great chance you'll find someone.
Ruling out one gender, that makes
3.5 Billion people. You're down to
50%
Then only take people in the U.S.
157,000,000 people remain. You're down to
2.2%
Reduce that even further to people who actually live in the same state as you. Let's take California, since it has the most people in it. Down to
19,000,000 people or
.27%
73-76% of people in the U.S. identify as Christian, but only
9% of people actually believe in the Bible, having what is called a "Biblical Worldview". That brings us down to
1,710,000 people and
.024% of the total world population.
So far we've eliminated 99.976% of the world population, or 99.952% of all opposite-gendered people. We're well past the 99.9% threshold.
Age is certainly a common factor. In the U.S. in 2005, 7% of people were age 20-25 and 7% were aged 25-30. 30-35 was also at just a bit less than 7%. So we'll take two of these age groups, giving a reasonable plus or minus 5-10 years difference between you and your significant other. So
14% of our group still standing would be
239,400 people.
.00336% of the world population.
Now you have to eliminate married people. The average age to get married is 28, and about
50% of people in the U.S. at that age are currently married. That's
119,700 compatible people.
.00168% of the total world population. However, it is
.315% of the total population of California (again, using a heavily populated state. Your results may vary). If you somehow met every person in the state,
1 out of every 300 people would meet these standards.
But then you have to factor in people you get along with, who you find attractive. Results at this point are highly variable, so lets go out on a limb and say that you are attracted to and/or compatible with a full
10% of people you meet. That brings us down to
11,970 people (again, out of the entire WORLD)
But a relationship is a two-way road. Only
10% of those people will also find you attractive. That makes
1,197 people. 1,197 people that you could start a decent, Godly relationship with. That's
.0000171% of the world's population, or
99.9999829% of the world's population eliminated.
That is
1 out of 5,847,953.
So...putting this into perspective...if you went out and met 5,847,953 people at random one of them would likely be compatible with you. Or just meeting people in your state (or wide-general area), you would be compatible with
one out of every 31,746 of them.
So if you want to be a little more practical, just take that number and divide it by the number of people in your general metropolitan area. If you live in an area of 500,000 people, there are likely
15-16 people near you that you would be compatible with.
Sources:
https://www.barna.org/barna-update/...hristians-over-the-past-13-years#.Ud3BFvmR81M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
Calculated Risk: Demographics GIF: 1920 - 2005
