Why more women live in major East Coast counties while men outnumber them in the West

People mingle at a Philadelphia Distilling Daters Mixer Hosted by Date Him Philly, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023. Some of the most populous urban areas in the United States have an imbalanced sex ratio. Many of the largest counties along the Eastern Seaboard and in the Deep South skew female, while the largest urban counties in the West tilt male, according to data released this fall from the 2022 American Community Survey (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Anyone who has suspected that there are more women than men where they live, or vice versa, will find fodder for their suspicions in new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Whether it refutes or confirms their suspicions likely depends on where they live.

Women outnumber men in the largest urban counties east of the Mississippi River, along the Eastern Seaboard and in the Deep South, while the West skews male, according to data released last week from the 2022 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, the most comprehensive source of data on American life. Those numbers were also backed up by age and sex figures from the 2020 census released earlier this year.