The legend that Alaska has a shortage of available women is an absolute demographic fact, but ironically, just across the Bering Strait there are plenty of hot Russian brides who are looking for foreign husbands, because Russia actually has a shortage of available men.
According to the 2000 census there were 114 single Alaskan men for every 100 single Alaskan women, but those numbers are actually too rosy, because Alaska has become the home of a large flourishing lesbian community. So, the facts for a lonely Alaskan man are actually worse than the numbers would indicate. The shortage of available single women is so bad in fact it is the subject of a lot of bad jokes: What do you call a beautiful woman in Juneau? A Tourist!
The problem for Russian women, no matter how attractive, is that the men tend to die young from drinking on a scale that is hard to imagine. Until recently it was assumed that they drank a little more than twice as much as men from the US or EU. However, some British researchers did not think that difference was enough to explain the much higher rates of alcohol poisoning and liver failure until they realized that many Russian men also consume large quantities of commercial alcohol in the form of items such as cologne, anti-freeze, and household cleaners.
So, it is not really surprising that the average life expectancy of Russian men is only about 58 years of age and many men already suffer from alcohol related health problems before they reach 40. Worse, the booze, which really became a huge problem only after the fall of the USSR, has also led to an explosion of domestic violence, and that is a major factor driving women from Russia and many other areas of Eastern Europe to sign up as mail order brides.
So, it seems like the Russian women looking for husbands and the Alaskan men looking for wives would be a match made in heaven.
First, the standard of living in Alaska is much higher than in Alaska and most Alaskan men could support a wife in a style that most Russian women can barely dream of.
Second, there are plenty of women in Russia, with a population of over 140 million, to easily meet the needs of the men in Alaska, and that’s not even considering the women from the Ukrainian or other countries in Eastern Europe.
Third, the Alaskan weather isn’t going to scare off a Russian girl or any other woman from Eastern Europe. Even the Crimea can get brutally cold in the winter.
Fourth, many of the women are hot enough to melt the permafrost. In general, women in the old Soviet Bloc are obsessed with beauty and fitness and even an average girl in Moscow or Kiev would turn heads in Fairbanks.
So, why don’t more Alaskan men pursue mail order brides from Russia or other countries in Eastern Europe. Probably, the main reason is that they don’t really understand how the modern international dating industry works. They are probably worried about being scammed, but today the mail order bride industry is extremely concerned about scammers. Men that use a good agency and a little good sense probably have no more chance of being scammed than any guy does when he meets a pretty girl anywhere and maybe even less. Really, lonely Alaskan men and beautiful Russian brides does seem like a match made in heaven.