The number of lonely, single women could be on the rise, but you are conflating loneliness with "lacking a romantic partner." Loneliness was measured with the

The number of lonely, single women could be on the rise, but you are conflating loneliness with "lacking a romantic partner." Loneliness was measured with the following 4 questions: "Do you feel a lack of companionship? Do you feel left out? Do you feel isolated from others? Do you feel in tune with people around you?" Certainly many if not all of those needs could be met without a romantic partner. So it doesn't necessarily follow that the numbers must be the same between heterosexual men and women.