Throughout human history, people have sought assistance from others in meeting romantic partners – and Americans today are increasingly looking for love online by enlisting the services of online dating sites and a new generation of mobile dating apps. A national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted June 10-July 12, 2015, among 2,001 adults, finds that:
Joining a dating site is not a sign of desperation. Online dating is no longer considered a last resort, but rather one of the primary ways people meet others. A lot of married couples right now met through online dating sites and Match is one of the main sites that have the ability to bring people together.
Taken together, a total of 15% of American adults now report that they have used online dating sites and/or mobile dating apps, up from the 11% who reported doing so in early 2013.1
This growth has been especially pronounced for two groups who have historically not used online dating at particularly high levels – the youngest adults, as well as those in their late 50s and early 60s.
The share of 18- to 24-year-olds who report having used online dating has nearly tripled in the last two years. Today 27% of these young adults report that they have done so, up from just 10% in early 2013. Meanwhile, the share of 55- to 64-year-olds who use online dating has doubled over the same time period (from 6% in 2013 to 12% in 2015).
For young adults in particular, this overall increase in online dating usage has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the use of mobile dating apps. Fully 22% of 18- to 24-year-olds now report using mobile dating apps, a more than fourfold increase from the 5% who reported using dating apps in 2013. These young adults are now more likely than any other age group to use mobile dating apps.
Although 15% of Americans have used online dating themselves, a larger share report that they are familiar with online dating from the experiences of people they know. Some 41% of American adults say they know someone who uses online dating, while 29% indicate they know someone who has married or entered into a long-term partnership with someone they met via online dating.
As was the case in previous Pew Research Center surveys of online dating, college graduates and the relatively affluent are especially likely to know people who use online dating or to know people who have entered into a relationship that began online. Nearly six-in-ten college graduates (58%) know someone who uses online dating, and nearly half (46%) know someone who has entered into a marriage or long-term partnership with someone they met via online dating. By comparison, just 25% of those with a high school diploma or less know someone who uses online dating – and just 18% know someone who has entered into a long-term relationship with someone they met this way.
Users of online dating are generally positive – but far from universally so – about the pros and cons of dating digitally. On one hand, a majority of online dating users agree that dating digitally has distinct advantages over other ways of meeting romantic partners:
On the other hand, a substantial minority of these users agree that meeting people online can have potential negative consequences:
But despite these reservations, those who have personally used online dating themselves – or know someone who does – tend to have much more positive attitudes compared to those with little direct exposure to online dating or online daters. For instance, just 55% of non-users agree that online dating is a good way to meet people, while six-in-ten agree that online dating is more dangerous than other ways of meeting people.
Overall, men and women who have used online dating tend to have similar views of the pros and cons – with one major exception relating to personal safety. Some 53% of women who have used online dating agree that it is more dangerous than other ways of meeting people, substantially higher than the 38% of male online daters who agree with this statement.
The online dating industry has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1959. At this time, two Stanford students matched 49 pairs of men and women using a punch card questionnaire processed by an IBM 650 mainframe computer. This became the first-ever recorded computer-aided matchmaking.
Today, top online dating sites and matchmaking services are using complex algorithms to match millions of users together from a sea of prospective candidates. The technology behind the industry has gone to new heights, as has the revenue it has made. This is far from the first matchmaking project that was never commercialized.
In this article, we present all the crucial online dating statistics related to the industry in the United States and abroad. In this way, you will have a grasp of how this constantly growing market is poised to become bigger.
Everything changed when the COVID-19 pandemic came. Virtually every industry underwent massive changes, with some of them likely to be long-lasting. This includes the online dating industry, which has been growing since 2017 at a really high pace. While every other industry seems to have mostly been negatively affected by the outbreak, the online industry has gotten stronger.
Online dating services are basically interest-based social networks. And, as social media trends show, social networks will remain popular for the foreseeable future. This is especially when the COVID-19 virus still rears its ugly head.
There are around 1,500 online dating sites and applications worldwide. Many of them are highly specialized. Some focus on interracial dating while others serve niches like highly-religious daters. However, from this sea of applications and websites, there are those that dominate the market. More specifically, they dominate in different ways.
Of the two top ten lists, Tinder sits on the top as the most popular application. However, the Match Group, the company that owns Tinder, also owns three others that can be found on the lists above. These include OkCupid, Hinge, and Plenty of Fish.
Total Users
%18-29
%30-44
%45-54
%55-64
%65+
%Source: Morning Consult, 2020
Designed byAs mentioned, online dating services are quite specialized. Some focus on serious relationships while other focus on hookups and the like. In this section, we are going to look at the profiles of online daters on various online platforms.
The General Profiles of OkCupid Users in 2020
For more info on the site, check these OkCupid statistics out.
Dating apps run on matching algorithms. These algorithms match users by similarities across a wide range of topics, from music to social issues. As COVID-19 became a global talking point, more and more conversations started around the subject.
Many factors came into play in the notable increase in dating activity during the pandemic. Of course, the lockdown itself played a big role. People trying to find love or just hookups can only turn online because of social distancing measures. Indeed, the topic of lockdown itself became a staple when it comes to conversation starters and discussions.
Nothing beats real-deal in-person dating. However, there are some benefits to dating online as well. On OkCupid, users shared the best parts of virtual dates. These are:
Since the lockdown, more and more people signed up for online services in the US. The most popular ones are, of course, streaming services such as Netflix (19%) and Amazon Prime Video (13%). However, experts also saw an uptick in online dating services subscriptions.
Source: eMarketer, 2020
There is a stigma surrounding online dating. Admittedly, the risk can be quite high especially when meeting up alone with total strangers. However, as recent statistics and data have told us, the stigma has been diminishing.
Furthermore, it was also found that women are more likely to report negative interactions on dating platforms. This is just a part of the overall danger of being online as recent cybercrime statistics tell us.
There are people, however, who claim that they found a committed relationship or marriage via online dating applications.
Source: YouGov, 2019
Advodating is becoming more popular online. A portmanteau of advocacy and dating, this describes how people tend to date people who have the same advocacies as them. This, however, is not something new. Many like Vice President Kamala Harris’s parents met each other attending a civil rights protest together (Nanu, 2020). In the same manner, many now identify as activists.
Of course, there are other preferences that changed during the pandemic. Many believe that they are likely going to continue to shape the future.
Source: Pew Research, 2020
Online dating is here to stay, helped by the contemporary increase in social media use and the app revolution. People find it more convenient to start conversations online than doing it in-person. For one, there is an increased sense of distance and safety from being rejected. Secondly, you can be more sure that the person you approach is open to dating because they have an online profile. And considering the latest Gen Z statistics, younger people are more amenable to online dating than older generations.
As these online dating statistics have shown, the industry has seen a rise in activity and revenue during the pandemic. However, experts believe that there will be a dip when the pandemic is over. However, the industry is bound to pick up after that dip, too. Top applications will likely have to do more to secure their positions as other entrants are more than willing to grab chunks off their market shares.
For online daters, the stigma of meeting someone for romantic or casual dating reasons seems to be slowly disappearing. However, there are inherent dangers when meeting with strangers who can easily set up totally fake or misleading accounts. In the future, we expect that developers will strive to make more regulations and features that can improve safety and overall experience. These dangers, though, are inherent in social platforms. Many, if not all, will remain. It is a game of minimization, not elimination.