How is the Post-college Dating in SLC? (Salt Lake City, West Valley City: 2015, house)

[IJustLoveThis]

-Moving to SLC for a new job from the SF Bay area
-28, born LDS but not in that lifestyle anymore
-Moving into a newly constructed home in the newer part of West Valley City
-Recently divorced

How's the dating life there?

[Geo-Aggie]

Not great. (unless you are female... see edit at bottom)

At this point, I'm sure you know the drill when it comes to Mormon girls dating Non-Mormon guys, so if you're not willing to go back to your formerly religious way of life, you can count out about 60% of the viable dating pool. Of that remaining 40%, they have options as the LDS church tends to have a higher attrition rate among young men than young women, so your competition will be high.

I love that area of the valley (Western WVC). It's beautiful and a nice, safe area, but it's definitely a family-oriented area. My wife and I lived there from 26-29 and we definitely fell outside of the typical demographic for the area (35-50, 3-4 kids). I probably wouldn't be heading there if I were a single guy looking for the social scene, but the investment potential in the neighborhood is great (we took a sizable profit when we moved). You've got the developments on 5600 West which are walkable, but I doubt you'll meet many 25-30 year old women hanging out at Starbucks or Beans and Brews.

On the bright side, you're only a 15 minute drive from Downtown SLC, and if you've got a career, a house and decent looks you will be appealing to that limited dating pool, and I think the options for entertainment and recreation in SLC are fantastic. Also - lots of E-dating happens in Metro Salt Lake. Sign up on a couple dating apps and you'll have dates. You'll just have to impress them, because your date will more than likely have another guy lined up for tomorrow.

Edit: Also, sorry I'm not sure why I assumed you were male - if you are female please just replace all gender specific remarks and if it's Non-LDS males you're looking for, the dating life is great!! You'll be the one with a string of dates after you sign up for Tinder, haha.

[IJustLoveThis]

Originally Posted by Geo-Aggie

Not great. (unless you are female... see edit at bottom)

At this point, I'm sure you know the drill when it comes to Mormon girls dating Non-Mormon guys, so if you're not willing to go back to your formerly religious way of life, you can count out about 60% of the viable dating pool. Of that remaining 40%, they have options as the LDS church tends to have a higher attrition rate among young men than young women, so your competition will be high.

I love that area of the valley (Western WVC). It's beautiful and a nice, safe area, but it's definitely a family-oriented area. My wife and I lived there from 26-29 and we definitely fell outside of the typical demographic for the area (35-50, 3-4 kids). I probably wouldn't be heading there if I were a single guy looking for the social scene, but the investment potential in the neighborhood is great (we took a sizable profit when we moved). You've got the developments on 5600 West which are walkable, but I doubt you'll meet many 25-30 year old women hanging out at Starbucks or Beans and Brews.

On the bright side, you're only a 15 minute drive from Downtown SLC, and if you've got a career, a house and decent looks you will be appealing to that limited dating pool, and I think the options for entertainment and recreation in SLC are fantastic. Also - lots of E-dating happens in Metro Salt Lake. Sign up on a couple dating apps and you'll have dates. You'll just have to impress them, because your date will more than likely have another guy lined up for tomorrow.

Edit: Also, sorry I'm not sure why I assumed you were male - if you are female please just replace all gender specific remarks and if it's Non-LDS males you're looking for, the dating life is great!! You'll be the one with a string of dates after you sign up for Tinder, haha.

Dude, thanks for the detail! I really appreciate it. Yes, accurate assumption I am male lol. Honestly, between you and I, I think this might hopefully be a decent area for me since I'm into Latinas. Seems like WVC has a concentration of sorts of Hispanic??
But yeah I just head downtown for weekends for sure.

[Geo-Aggie]

Hey, no problem! Like I said, I just left that area maybe 8 months ago. I loved it and miss it, but I'm happy to have moved on as well.

West Valley, according to census data, is about 40% Hispanic - it makes it the least white city in Northern Utah. As an aside, there are some towns in Southeastern Utah that are almost entirely American Indian. There is also a decent Polynesian population in WVC - maybe 4-5% of the city. Try out the Poly restaurant on 5600 West at about 2600 South sometime. Good food! As a whole, the city gets whiter the further west you go. I would say the area between 5600 West and 7200 West is maybe 25% Hispanic and most of the Hispanics in this part are 2nd or 3rd generation and speak English as a first language.

I definitely wish you the best of luck. There is some dating success to be had, I met my wife up in Sugar House, but if I could go back and do over my post-college dating years (and my college years for that matter) I think I would choose somewhere where a significant portion of the women weren't so focused on religious values and there was a greater percentage of progressive women.

[hurrication]

Originally Posted by Geo-Aggie

Not great. (unless you are female... see edit at bottom)

At this point, I'm sure you know the drill when it comes to Mormon girls dating Non-Mormon guys, so if you're not willing to go back to your formerly religious way of life, you can count out about 60% of the viable dating pool. Of that remaining 40%, they have options as the LDS church tends to have a higher attrition rate among young men than young women, so your competition will be high.

So with what you're saying about the churn rate of more mormon men, it is going to result in that many more mormon women who will stay single instead of choosing to look outside of their religion for a mate? There is not any sort of growing acceptance towards marrying outside the religion?

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by hurrication

So with what you're saying about the churn rate of more mormon men, it is going to result in that many more mormon women who will stay single instead of choosing to look outside of their religion for a mate? There is not any sort of growing acceptance towards marrying outside the religion?

Mormons and non-Mormons date, fall in love and get married all the time.

[kaytidid]

Two of my sisters (non LDS) married men that are. Happens quite often, actually.

[Geo-Aggie]

It happens, but it is atypical. Time Magazine ran a good piece on this exact topic and how it applies to Salt Lake City dating life just a few months back. It discusses other factors such as people generally wanting to marry those with similar education levels as themselves, but an excerpt on this topic reads:

“For men, there are so many choices that choices are not made. The dream for the Mormon man is to get married and have six kids. As he ages, his dream never changes. But when you’re a thirty-seven-year-old woman, you’ve already aged out of that dream.” So why are there so many more Mormon women than Mormon men? The simple answer is that over the past twenty-five years, Utah men have been quitting the LDS church in unusually large numbers."

Another source discusses the claim of roughly 150 females to 100 males believe in Mormonism. Obviously in a 50% oversupply of young adult females, you'll have some non-traditionalists who value companionship over convention, but the general rule is that, in Utah, Mormon men and Non-Mormon women are in limited supply and high demand.

There is some growth in less-orthodox circles regarding the acceptance of non-conventional marriages within Mormonism, but I don't think even the liberal believers will disagree with me when I state the culture places a major emphasis is placed on marrying within the religion. In my own marriage, my wife initially nearly left me after I quit believing. Fortunately after the initial shock, she still accepted me and within a couple years she came around to realizing that Mormonism didn't belong in her life either.

[kaytidid]

Originally Posted by Geo-Aggie

In my own marriage, my wife initially nearly left me after I quit believing. Fortunately after the initial shock, she still accepted me and within a couple years she came around to realizing that Mormonism didn't belong in her life either.

The dark side has cookies!

[Geo-Aggie]

Yes, but the light side has coffee and.. Oh!, wait, you meant... ah, I got it backward, didn't I?

I kid, I kid.

Can I still have a cookie?