New research from consumer analyst company Mintel has found that 61 percent of us are happy flying solo, with only 75 percent actively looking to date in the past year. In comparison, just 49 percent of guys are content with their single status.
According to Professor Emily Grundy, this is because girls are often required to put in more work for love; from spending time on their appearance to resolving arguments.
“There’s evidence that girls do more emotional work,” she told The Telegraph.
What’s more, Grundy says gals are better at socialising by ourselves and are more likely to have close friends we can rely on in times of need.
“Girls tend to be better at having alternative social networks and other confidantes whereas guys tend to rely quite heavily on their GF for that and have fewer other social ties,” she explained.
“Certainly, there’s a common finding from a lot of studies that girls who don’t have a boyfriend tend to do more social activities and have more friends compared to girls with boyfriends whereas with guys it’s the reverse - guys without a girlfriend tend to do much less of that.”
“So it may be that girls have a wider range of alternatives.”
This article originally appeared on Women's Health.