In a compeltely bizarre piece of news from the weekend, the Georgian government has issued a nationwide census to tally the number of single people living in the country.
Apparently, the idea is that with a concrete understanding of the single population, the government at Tbilisi will be able to tackle the rapidly slowing birthrate.
An agency, commissioned by the Eastern European country has said: "We will take a census of all singles, widows, widowers, the divorced and enter their details in a database." And apparently the census will include details of weight, height and, amusingly, zodiac sign.
A more light-hearted view of this initiative is that the Georgian government plans to act as match-maker, setting up singletons with compatibly star-signed potential partners.
Here in the ELLE office we have conjured an entertaining image of government officials trying to encourage romance.
Like the pandas of East Asia, Georgia singletons might be played Barry White and be given supermarket coupons for oysters and other aphrodisiacs.
Might they follow in the fun footsteps of the Danish 'Do it for Denmark' campaign?
A slightly more negative interpretation of the census has seen certain Georgians worried that the government will treat singletons with prejudice, such as and increased tax for the unmarried.
Images: GETTY
Natasha Bird is the Former Executive Editor (Digital) of ELLE.
