Single girls in Australia prefer to be on their own

Single girls in Australia prefer to be on their own than go man-hunting on the weekends, statistics showed.

A survey of 500 women found that 51.4% favoured being single than being married.

They would rather spend time building their careers, social lives, strong friendships, take on other commitments, such as buying real estate, than crib about their single status.

The single ladies, dubbed "freemales", also outnumbered their married sisters and earned more than them, according to the Sunday Herald Sun.

And those who walked down the aisle were doing so at an older age with the average being 28 years in 2005, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

"You're brought up in a society with the idea that one day you'll get married, buy a house with your partner and have children, but it didn't happen that way for me," News.com.au quoted Melbourne single woman, Chloe Dennis, 40, an accountant, as saying.

"It got to the point where I realised that if I didn't do this (buy a home) by myself, it might never happen. My financial clock was ticking," she added.