SA has changed for the worse over the years. A large part of the problem is that the demographics have changed in several ways. I will examine those ways in separate posts for separate effects.

The first effect, is simple numbers - numbers of women, that is.

I happen to live in what should be a "target rich" environment for SDs. However, over the last decade the numbers have dramatically changed - for the worse.  

a) The absolute number of SBs have decreased.
 I noticed this before SA removed the ability to see the total number of SBs within a given radius earlier this year - an "enhancement" almost certainly driven by the desire not to let SDs see how the numbers have declined. In any case, it was the case in the past that there were approximately 13-16,000 SBs within a 20-25 mile radius around where I live. Now that number has declined to approximately 10-12,000.  This is surely contrary to expectations. SA is now presumably better known than 5-10 years ago, yet now there are substantially fewer users?

b) The ratio of SBs to SDs has declined
In the past, my empiric checks on the ratio of SBs to SDs for various areas showed that the ratio was around 4, in line with SA's claims. Earlier this year, however, the ratio was down to between 2-3. In other words, the decline in the number of SBs using the service - my point a) above - means fewer SBs per daddy, as the numbers of SDs had not decreased. Again, this is for earlier this year, before SA removed the total numbers from their search returns.

In summary, noticeably fewer SBs out there, and fewer SBs per SD.

Part II, to be posted later, will examine the makeup of the remaining SBs.

- Dick Everhard