Online Dating & Relationships

One out of every ten Americans has used an online dating site or mobile dating app, and many more people now know someone who has found a marriage or long-term companion through online dating. In recent years, popular perceptions of online dating have improved dramatically, and social networking platforms are now playing an increasingly important role in navigating and documenting love relationships. These are some of the important findings of a national survey on dating and relationships in the internet era, the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project’s first focused study on the issue since 2005.

Online dating sites or mobile dating apps have been used by 11% of American adults, and 38% of those who are currently “single and looking” for a relationship.

An online dating site or a mobile dating app has been used by one out of every ten adults in the United States. Throughout this paper, we refer to these people as “online daters,” and we define them as follows:

• Match.com, eHarmony, and OK Cupid are among the online dating sites that 11 percent of internet users (representing 9 percent of all adults) have used.
• 7 percent of cell phone app users (representing 3% of all adults) have used a dating app on their phone.

When both of these habits are combined, 11% of all individuals in the United States are labeled “online daters.” According to demographics, online dating is most popular among Americans in their mid-20s to mid-40s. Online daters make up 22% of those aged 25 to 34 and 17% of those aged 35 to 44. College graduates, as well as city and suburb dwellers, are big fans of online dating. Furthermore, online dating has been used by 38 percent of single Americans who are actively looking for a mate at some point.

66 percent of online daters have gone on a date with someone they met on a dating site or app, and 23 percent say they have met their spouse or long-term partner through these services.

Online daters in 2013 are more likely to actually go out on dates with the people they meet on these sites than they were eight years ago. When we initially asked this question in 2005, 43 percent of online daters said they had gone on a date with someone they met through an online dating site or app. Now, 66 percent of online daters say they have gone on a date with someone they met through an online dating site or app. Beyond dates, one-quarter of online daters (23%) say they’ve married or had a long-term relationship with someone they met on a dating site or app. This is statistically similar to the 17% of online daters who stated they had experienced this when we initially asked the question in 2005.

Attitudes towards online dating are becoming more positive over time

Even today, online dating is not universally regarded as a beneficial pastime; a sizable portion of the population views it with skepticism. At the same time, popular perceptions of online dating have improved over the last eight years:

• The assertion that “online dating is an excellent way to meet people” is now agreed with by 59 percent of all internet users, up from 44 percent in 2005.
• According to the survey, 53 percent of internet users feel that “online dating assists people to find a better match for themselves because they can get to know a lot more people,” up from 47 percent in 2005.
• According to the survey, 21% of internet users think that “people who use online dating sites are desperate,” down from 29% in 2005.

Online daters, on the whole, are enthusiastic about the experience. Online dating is a fantastic way to meet people, according to 79 percent of online daters, and it also helps people discover a better romantic fit, according to 70 percent of them, because they have access to a larger pool of potential partners. Even yet, some online daters have a poor impression of the procedure and the people they meet on these sites. Around one-third of online daters (13%) think that “those who use online dating services are desperate,” and another third (29%) say that online dating “keeps people from settling down because they constantly have options for people to date.”

42% of all Americans know an online dater, and 29% know someone who has used online dating to find a spouse or other long-term relationship

Since our previous online dating poll in 2005, the number of people who have heard of online dating from friends or family members has risen considerably. In 2005, only 31% of Americans knew someone who had used online dating. Today, 42% of Americans know someone who has used online dating. And, up from 15% in 2005, 29% of Americans now know someone who met their spouse or other long-term partner through online dating.

People in practically every major demographic group—old and young, men and women, urbanites and rural dwellers—are more likely than eight years ago to know someone who uses online dating (or has met a long-term spouse through online dating). This is especially true for people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder: