The dating game

Single male CAs tired of being snubbed by the smug married can now flaunt their dating status with pride. According to a recently released international book, The Big Picture, the most eligible bachelors are accountants. In ranking rich, single Australian men aged25 to 34 by profession, demographer Bernard Salt states that accountants come out on top, followed by sales and marketing managers, software designers, general electricians, consultants and lawyers — in that order.

Accountants top the list because there are so manyof them, says Salt, which means that statistically, accountants are always going to be a lady’s best dating bet. “Accounting is a much misunderstood profession: the men are here, they’re rich and they’re available,” he adds.

Salt reached his findings by inventing the “Fella Filter,” a tongue-in-cheek “sophisticated statistical technique” that he says can be used by women to “filter out unsuitable candidates for love and affection.” In his research, Salt filtered out married men, those living common law or in same-sex relationships and those earning less than AU$60,000 annually. About 1.3 million men were surveyed; 86,000 were found to be single,straight, unattached and wealthy. Of these, 3,460 were accountants.

Anne Kingston, Canadian author of The Meaning of Wife, says an increasing number of people consider income to be an “important criterion when seeking a long-term mate.” She dismisses the filter concept, saying using “statistical probabilities of love” means “we’ve lost the random magic.” Still, Kingston believes these findings are likely to “give a boost to accountants who don’t have a lot of sexual cachet in the way bullfighters or race car drivers do. It doesn’t surprise me that they have a high straight quotient, logical and conventional minds and are stable and hard-working, which aren’t bad things at all if you are looking for a husband.”