One of the problems with saying that the age gap theory is THE reason for the fact that there are so many “older singles” is the following:
That could only be the case if there were only older girls and no older boys. The fact is that there are many older single boys. I do not know how the numbers of older single girls compares to the number of older single boys, but that is irrelevant. Either way, there are many older single boys.
This means two things:
1. While the age-gap theory may explain why there are older single girls, it does not explain why there are older single boys. Single boys are people too, and they also need to get married, and they also have a shidduch crisis. The age-gap theory ignores that.
2. According to the “musical chairs analogy”, the older single girls have NO one they can marry. That is not true – most older single girls have boys they could have married if they had wanted to. Maybe they had very good reasons for not doing so, but the point is that the analogy is incorrect, and that the number issue can not possibly be the ONLY issue and it is probably not the main issue either.
At best, it is ONE factor, and probably not the main one.