{"id":8218,"date":"2023-02-24T10:59:58","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T15:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/the-never-been-married-are-biggest-users-of-online-dating\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T23:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:55:16","slug":"the-never-been-married-are-biggest-users-of-online-dating","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2023\/02\/24\/the-never-been-married-are-biggest-users-of-online-dating\/","title":{"rendered":"About half of never-married Americans have used an online dating site or app"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three-in-ten U.S. adults say they have <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2023\/02\/02\/from-looking-for-love-to-swiping-the-field-online-dating-in-the-u-s\/\">ever used a dating app or site<\/a>, but usage differs sharply by marital status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. adults who have never been married or who live with a partner are the most likely to say they have ever used an online dating service: 52% and 46%, respectively, say this. By comparison, 36% of Americans who are divorced, separated or widowed say they have ever used a dating site or app, while 16% of married adults say the same, according to a new analysis of a Pew Research Center survey conducted in July 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"border-width:1px;padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);--block-gap: inherit\" class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible has-background has-ui-beige-very-light-background-color has-border-color has-ui-beige-dark-border-color\" id=\"how-we-did-this\" data-wp-interactive=\"{&quot;namespace&quot;:&quot;prc-block\\\/collapsible&quot;}\" data-wp-context=\"{&quot;collapsibleId&quot;:&quot;how-we-did-this&quot;,&quot;isOpen&quot;:false}\" data-wp-class--is-open=\"context.isOpen\" data-wp-init--scroll-into-view=\"callbacks.onInitScrollIntoView\"><div class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__title\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.onClick\"><div>How we did this<\/div><button class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__icon\"><span data-wp-bind--hidden=\"context.isOpen\"><i class=\"icon icon-library__light icon__circle-plus\"><svg style=\"width: 1em; height: 1em;\"><use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/plugins\/prc-icon-library\/build\/icons\/sprites\/light.svg#circle-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i><\/span><span data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!context.isOpen\" hidden><i class=\"icon icon-library__light icon__circle-minus\"><svg style=\"width: 1em; height: 1em;\"><use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/plugins\/prc-icon-library\/build\/icons\/sprites\/light.svg#circle-minus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i><\/span><\/button><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__content\">\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand how Americans\u2019 experiences with dating sites and apps vary by marital status. This survey was conducted among 6,034 U.S. adults from July 5-17, 2022. This included 4,996 respondents from the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. It also included an oversample of 1,038 respondents from Ipsos\u2019 KnowledgePanel who indicated that they are lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), with oversampled groups weighted back to reflect proportions in the population. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race and ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/our-methods\/u-s-surveys\/the-american-trends-panel\/\">ATP\u2019s methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/online-dating-marital-status-topline.pdf\">the questions used<\/a> for this analysis, along with responses, and <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/online-dating-marital-status-methodology.pdf\">its methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-11109\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2023\/02\/24\/the-never-been-married-are-biggest-users-of-online-dating\/ft_2023-02-24_online-dating-marital-status_01-png\/\"><img data-dominant-color=\"cfd8e3\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #cfd8e3;\" decoding=\"async\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_01.png?resize=480,427 480w, https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_01.png?resize=782,696 782w, https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_01.png?resize=840,748 840w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" src=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_01.png\" alt=\"A bar chart showing that the share of Americans who have ever used a dating site or app has held steady since 2019 at 30%\" class=\"wp-image-11109 not-transparent\" width=\"420\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There has been no change since 2019 in the overall share of adults who say they have ever used a dating site or app, nor has there been any significant change by marital status group. For example, both in 2019 and in the most recent survey, 52% of never-married adults say they have ever used a dating site or app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among never-married Americans, younger adults are more likely than older ones to have used online dating services: 59% of never-married adults under 50 say they have ever used a dating platform, compared with 22% of those ages 50 and older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although married adults are the least likely group to have ever used a dating site or app, younger adults in this group are more likely than older ones to have done so. About a quarter (26%) of married adults under 50 say they have used an online dating platform, compared with just 8% of married adults ages 50 and older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-11112\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2023\/02\/24\/the-never-been-married-are-biggest-users-of-online-dating\/ft_2023-02-24_online-dating-marital-status_02-png\/\"><img data-dominant-color=\"dee1db\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #dee1db;\" decoding=\"async\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_02.png?resize=480,421 480w, https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_02.png?resize=782,685 782w, https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_02.png?resize=840,736 840w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" src=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/ft_2023.02.24_online-dating-marital-status_02.png\" alt=\"A bar chart showing that 30% of online dating users who\u2019ve never been married say they\u2019re currently using a dating site or app\" class=\"wp-image-11112 not-transparent\" width=\"420\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A majority of never-married users of online dating platforms have recently used one of these services, including those who were currently doing so as of the July 2022 survey. Three-in-ten online daters who have never been married (30%) \u2013 which translates to 16% of all never-married U.S. adults \u2013 said in the 2022 survey that they were currently using a dating site or app. An additional 27% said they were not currently using an online dating service but had done so in the past year. About four-in-ten online daters who have never been married said that the last time they used a dating site or app was either between one and five years ago or more than five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As one might expect, relatively few Americans who are married or living with a partner indicated in the July 2022 survey that they were currently active on dating platforms. Still, among U.S. adults who say they have ever used an online dating platform, 3% of both cohabitating and married people said they were <em>currently<\/em> using one of these services \u2013 a share that translates to 1% of all married and cohabitating adults in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Note: This is an update of a post originally published Feb. 18, 2016, and last updated March 24, 2020. Here are <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/online-dating-marital-status-topline.pdf\">the questions used<\/a> for this report, along with responses, and <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/online-dating-marital-status-methodology.pdf\">its methodology<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>36% of Americans who are divorced, separated or widowed say they have ever used a dating site or app; 16% of married adults say the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713063324","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[286,230,227],"bylines":[696],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[526],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-8218","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-online-dating","category-romance-dating","category-unmarried-adults","bylines-emily-a-vogels","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-internet"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":607,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2023\/02\/24\/the-never-been-married-are-biggest-users-of-online-dating\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":11127,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_topic.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_topic.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"caption":"","chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":11121,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_crop.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_crop.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"caption":"","chartArt":true},"A3":{"id":11121,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_crop.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_crop.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"caption":"","chartArt":true},"A4":{"id":11121,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_crop.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_crop.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"caption":"","chartArt":true},"XL":{"id":11127,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_topic.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_topic.png?w=720&h=405&crop=1","width":720,"height":405,"caption":"","chartArt":false},"social":{"id":11125,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_feature.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/02\/SR_23.02.07_OnlineDatingStatus_feature.png?w=1200&h=628&crop=1","width":1200,"height":628,"caption":"","chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"52% of Americans who never married have used an online dating site or app","description":"36% of Americans who are divorced, separated or widowed say they have ever used a dating site or app; 16% of married adults say the same.","og_title":"About half of never-married Americans have used an online dating site or app","og_description":"36% of Americans who are divorced, separated or widowed say they have ever used a dating site or app; 16% of married adults say the same.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":{"research-teams":10818962},"custom_schema":[],"twitter_title":"About half of never-married Americans have used an online dating site or app","twitter_description":"36% of Americans who are divorced, separated or widowed say they have ever used a dating site or app; 16% of married adults say the same.","og_image":11125,"twitter_image":425074,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"97816bfd-0e2f-407f-86f0-59a42ac7ad83","termId":696}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/8218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/8218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26221,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/8218\/revisions\/26221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=8218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}