CMV: The most reasonable explanation for the disparity between the number of young men and women who report being single is that women are "sharing" the most desirable men.

So first, just to clarify, the Pew poll in question(edit: wrong article, this is an older similar one, this article is the one I meant to post) defined being "single" as poll respondents who reported that they were not in a "committed romantic relationship", living with a partner, or married. This was the wording of the question. In the latest poll conducted July 2022, almost twice as many men aged 18-29(63%) reported being single compared to their female counterparts(34%).

There's been quite a bit of debate over this, with many women arguing that the disparity is due to women in this age bracket dating older men, or men and women who are sexually/romantically involved merely having differing views on their relationship status.

I don't think that provides a compelling and complete explanation for this phenomenon.

1. Relationships with large age gaps seem to be statistically uncommon, a figure that often gets cited here describes an average age disparity of only 2 years. So the relatively small number of women <30 dating men >30 certainly isn't enough to explain this disparity.
   And to balance this out, probably a sizeable number of non-single young men in their late-teens/early 20s are dating 16-17 year old girls (this is legal virtually everywhere and socially acceptable in most places).
2. When women and men who are sexually/romantically involved have differing views on their relationship status, I think that is closely related to the desirability of the man in question. A man who describes themselves as being single despite being sexually/romantically with a woman is very likely to be a highly desirable man who is involved with multiple woman, and as a result reluctant to commit fully.
   Most men do not easily attract women and require quite a bit of effort and luck to succeed, and certainly cannot regularly and consistently have casual sex. According to GSS data that has been posted here before, a significant minority of young men are having little to no sex at all. So it seems dubious that average and below average men would be reluctant to commit once they have succeeded since they wouldn't be giving up much.

So given this, it seems to make sense to conclude that this statistical disparity is in large part due to most women in this age bracket pursuing and "sharing" the most desirable men. This certainly meshes well with how many young women are complaining about how men don't want to commit.