From Looking for Love to Swiping the Field: Online Dating in the U.
S.
Pew Research Center Tinder is the most widely used dating platform in the U.S.
About half of those who have used dating sites or apps have had positive experiences, and some have met their partners on one, however, safety and harassment remain issues.
From Looking for Love to Swiping the Field: Online Dating in the U.S.
Tinder is the most widely used dating platform in the U.S.
About half of those who have used dating sites or apps have had positive experiences, and some have met their partners on one.
But safety and harassment remain issues.
Table of Contents.
Table of Contents.
Tinder is the most widely used dating platform in the U.S.
About half of those who have used dating sites or apps have had positive experiences, and some have met their partners on one.
But safety and harassment remain issues.
Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans experiences with dating sites and apps and their views of online dating generally.
This survey was conducted among 6,034 U.S.
adults from July 5-17, 2022.
This included 4,996 respondents from the Centers 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 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, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.
Read more about the ATPs methodology.
A note about the Asian adult sample.
This survey includes a total sample size of 234 Asian adults.
The sample primarily includes English-speaking Asian adults and, therefore, may not be representative of the overall Asian adult population.
Despite this limitation, it is important to report the views of Asian adults on the topics in this study.
As always, Asian adults responses are incorporated into the general population figures throughout this report.
Asian adults are shown as a separate group when the question was asked of the full sample.
Because of the relatively small sample size and a reduction in precision due to weighting, results are not shown separately for Asian adults for questions that were only asked of online dating users or other filtered questions.
We are also not able to analyze Asian adults by demographic categories, such as gender, age or education.
Whether searching for the one or the right now, Americans are turning to the internet to help them find companionship, commitment or casual encounters.
Three-in-ten U.S.
adults say they have ever used a dating site or app, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted July 5-17, 2022.
Their experiences range from triumphant to troubling, as some report meeting a partner online or being excited about prospects, while others report facing harassment or scams.
People have a number of dating sites and apps to choose from in todays market.
Tinder is the most commonly used dating site or app among the list of eight measured in the survey.
Some 46 of Americans who have ever used a dating site or app say they have used it, which represents 14 of all U.S.
adults.
About three-in-ten online dating users equaling roughly one-in-ten adults overall report ever using Match or Bumble.
OkCupid, eharmony and Hinge have each been used by roughly one-in-five online dating users (6 each among all adults).
While Grindr and HER are used by small shares of online dating users overall, they are far more popular among lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) online dating users.
1 Some 34 of LGB users say they have ever tried Grindr and 10 say this about HER.
And owing to the wide range of dating platforms available to Americans, about three-in-ten online dating users say they have ever used another dating site or app not on this list (see Chapter 1 of this report for a discussion of these responses).
The dating sites and apps people have used also vary widely by age.
For example, 79 of online dating users under 30 say they have used Tinder, versus 44 of those ages 30 to 49 and smaller shares of those 50 and older.
On the other hand, Match is more popular among online dating users 50 to 64 than among those in other age groups.
Like the Centers 2019 study, this survey primarily explored the experiences of online dating users in general that is, no matter what platforms they have used.
The overall share of Americans who report using any type of dating site or app 30 is unchanged since the last time the Center studied this topic.
As was true then, some groups are more likely to have tried online dating than others.
Some 53 of adults under 30 have ever used a dating site or app including a quarter who have used one in the past year.
This compares with 37 of those ages 30 to 49 who have ever tried online dating and smaller shares of those 50 to 64 (20) and 65 and older (13) who say the same.
Beyond age differences, LGB adults stand out for their use of dating sites and apps: 51 of this group have used one, including 24 who have in the past year.
There are also more modest differences by community type, education and gender.
Similar shares of Americans across racial and ethnic groups say they have ever used a dating site or app.
The upsides and downsides of dating digitally have inspired considerable debate.
One of the key questions surrounding online dating is whether these platforms lead to long-term relationships.
One-in-ten adults who are partnered that is, they are married, living with a partner or in a committed romantic relationship say they met this person on a dating site or app.
The share rises to 20 of partnered adults under 30 who say online dating brought them together, about a quarter of LGB partnered adults say the same.
Even so, Americans overall have divided views on some aspects of online dating.
For example, not everyone thinks this is a safe way to meet people.