Revealed: The towns and suburbs in South Australia with the most singles.

NEW figures show the South Australian suburbs that have the highest number and the highest proportion of single men and women.

A SMALL semi-rural suburb south of Adelaide could be the best place to find love in South Australia.

New data shows Cherry Gardens, a 40 minute drive south-east of Adelaide, has the highest percentage (88.3 per cent) of young singles.

Exclusive Census analysis for the Sunday Mail reveals the proportion of singles living in South Australian suburbs by comparing how many residents aged between 25 and 34 declared they were not married or in a defacto relationship in last year’s Census.

The five spots in SA with the highest percentage of singles were Cherry Gardens followed by Dry Creek, (77.8 per cent), Springfield (76.7 per cent), Uleybury (73.9 per cent) and Heathpool (71.9 per cent).

Most suburbs had close to equal numbers of male and female singles.

But there were exceptions — Bedford Park in Adelaide’s south had 126 single women but just 92 single men.

The rural suburb of Uleybury, north-east of Adelaide, had 13 single men, but not a single female.

Adelaide has the highest number of singles with 1650 followed by Morphett Vale, (1259), Parafield Gardens (1035) and Mawson Lakes (998).

Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese told the Sunday Mail the SA capital should be a great place to find love.

“With so many festivals and events, as well as a thriving small bar, food and wine scene, there are plenty of opportunities for single Adelaideans to find love in the city,” he said.

Flinders University relationships expert Priscilla Dunk-West said the figures showed South Aussies were taking longer to enter into formal relationships

“People are moving toward coupling later in life,” Dr Dunk-West said. “It is a trend that sits across coupling and uncoupling. People are waiting longer to become committed and are getting older to divorce.”

Dr Dunk-West said changes to student support meant it was much more financially difficult to move out of home.

“It means more young people live at home for longer,” she said.

Polly Humphries, 20, and Emilee Cooper, 20, having fun as singles in Bedford Park. Picture: Tom Huntley

Dr Dunk-West suggested some of the people in the Census may be in relationships — but not as they were once defined.

“They could be in a polyamorous relationships with more than one partner,” she said.

“Many young people are questioning what they want out of a relationship more than ever before. There is a theory that in the past we would say ‘Yes, I am married, it is locked’ but these days we are more likely to reflect and assess and question whether our relationships are meeting our needs.”

She said it was also important to note that despite places like Adelaide and Bedford Park having high numbers of singles, they were also near university campuses meaning that young singles may be very transient as overseas students.

At a time when dating apps and websites make the idea of finding love as simple as accessing a mobile phone, Dr Dunk-West said many people still found love in the places they always had — through community groups, church, work, friends and family. “In a sense it has not changed. But what has happened with the rise of technology is that we also see shifts in the ways people find their communities,” she said.

She said although dating apps like Tinder allowed people to search others by location, it was also “borderless”.

Despite new trends in relationships Dr Dunk-West said relationships were still very pervasive in SA.

“Over 90 per cent of us will have an intimate relation in our life,” she said.

“It is something that we do and it is important.”