And in other news

So I was sitting in Northwest Hospital's lovely surgery prep-room this afternoon, waiting for the doctor to arrive, when I started paging through this month's issue of National Geographic. Aside from learning a LOT about the unearthly worms of Hawaii, I stumbled upon this lovely map charting the areas of the U.S. where single people abound. Baltimore (loving as it does to be tops in all sorts of fun lists like top for teen pregnancy, STDs, violence per capita) is one of the top cities brimming to capacity with single women!
The article went on to explain that due to the number of universities on the east coast, and with 58% of all college students being women, most of whom will go on to white collar careers in areas near where they graduate, this is why the east coast looks like its being taken over by some orange rash. Meanwhile, the single men on the west coast are explained away by undocumented immigrants and migrant workers.
I can't help but feel there is something wrong with this... why don't they explain why the middle of the country seems to be mostly married?
And why does this make me feel like they think not being married is wrong? Or that to be a single woman (who most likely graduated college, has a nice career and supports herself) in the U.S. today makes you comparable socially to a undocumented immigrant (who generally are viewed as less-than-human by many as shown by the endless debates about immigration in the U.S.)?
Why do I feel snubbed for wishing to continue my (very-prolonged) education instead of settling down with a Mr. Jill and making him my career?
And what about couples who haven't yet been given the right to marry? How many of these "single" women and men are in long-term homosexual relationships, that by any reasonably-minded person ARE a marriage?
I guarantee a large portion of those colored blobs would disappear off the map if they factored that in as well. Sadly, the U.S. Census didn't see fit to include that statistic when they released their 2005 survey. Maybe next year...