In such an example, 8.33 per cent of women cannot get married, without the extra complicating features. And when they try their own age or younger men they are competing against younger, more attractive, more fertile, women. Secondly, the figures are complicated by the 'impressions' that the facts create. A significant excess of women over the number of desirable men puts them into competition even before they are of marriageable age. Once that has happened, the actual figures do not tell the whole story, as the process has a dynamic of its own.
Further figures show a higher rate of both marriage and cohabitation by men.
By the means outlined above a seemingly small excess of women can have a large effect on society. The availability of polygamy works against this - and so it is unsurprising to note that polygamous societies have historically had lower rates of fornication, adultery, prostitution and abortion than our own. The author, Samuel Chapman, lives in England.