A Few Words About Online Dating
Just a few decades ago nobody thought that it would be possible to do everything without leaving the comfort of their own home. Now we can enjoy a good movie without going to the cinema, we can order products online and get them delivered to us, we can do all of our work duties in front of our personal computer and, of course, we can communicate with the people we like without making physical contact, even when you are miles apart from your friends and loved ones. The technology is moving fast, and people find it increasingly hard to keep up with it. The way we meet both new friends and partners has changed for the past few decades.
The only thing that is required for a person to meet the love of their life is to have the Internet connection and any form of device that can be connected to it, what a weird time to be alive. It is not surprising that online dating is a very popular industry, it satisfies the needs of millions of people every single day, whether that is about people who are looking for serious relationships, friends or just casual hookups. The same goes for all of the interests, quirks and of course, sexual preferences that people have, there are apps for gays, lesbians, transgender, and heterosexuals. There are apps for the lovers of beards, for the workers of the aviation industry, for the dog lovers. There are apps that allow you to find a partner by their musical taste, by the things they like, they hate and etc. As you can see, it is a very big market, a very diverse one.
Such services have been especially popular in the last few years because of the rise of Tinder, Badoo and the upcoming release of Facebook service for dating. Thus, let’s look at the recent development in this industry and online dating statistics of 2019.
Dating App Statistics
Let’s start off with the dating apps statistics, as the market share of dating apps is growing really fast.
Let’s start with the first dates. Now it’s a widely known tradition that may have outlived itself now, but men often pay for women in cafes and restaurants. 52% of women offer men to pay for their meals in 2019.Here’s a sad number for women, as it seems like only 13% of men actually call back after a first date.
Now let’s stick to some general statistics, let’s look at the way people perceive online dating as a whole.
- 28% of women consider online dating to be the best way to meet a partner, while 46% of ladies aren’t really sure about it. The statistics aren’t really that different to men, with 25% of men considering online dating to be the best way to meet a partner and 50% being unsure of what to think of it.
- 26% of all users of online dating applications have used the reverse image search.
- The dating market is huge and has lots of ways in which people meet each other, 26% of its revenue is due to the online dating apps alone.
- Let’s talk about some dating site statistics. The most popular online services for dating are Tinder (41% of the market share), Match (33%), PlentyOfFish (27%), OkCupid (24%).
- Here’s a good trend, as around 18% of all people who got engaged in the US in 2018 started their relationships in dating apps. Let’s continue on this topic, users of dating apps spend less time on dating before making it official than people who meet each other in traditional ways.
Here’s another good trend, as such alliances seem to be quite strong since families that have via the internet are more satisfied with their relationships than people that have met each other in traditional ways.
Let’s continue on with the overall online dating facts and statistics as well as the success people have with the market.
Online Dating Success Statistics
- 67% of users of online services for dating actually went as far as to go on a date with another person. When it comes to online dating success statistics, this is the most telling one, as only a third of people that used internet services for dating went nowhere, yet the majority of these people got some results out of it.
Now let’s talk big scale statistics of online dating, big numbers. In 2018, the dating market’s overall revenue was 3 billion dollars, this number is bound to be higher in 2019. When it comes to the number of services, they are roughly around 2100 services in USA and Canada, while there are 8200 services worldwide. As for the number of users, here’s where you can see that lots of services exaggerate the number of people using their services, as only 60 million people use services for dating, which is across the board. We mention it because some services claim that they have upwards to 300 million users, which is just wrong on so many levels.
- 41% of these users are women, and 59% of them are men.
- 50.3 million citizens of the USA used a service for dating at least once in their lives.
- Let’s continue on with the global scale statistics, as there are roughly 610.000.000 single users with access to the world wide web, yet only a third of them used a service for dating in the past.
- In 1996, around 0.3% of people created a relationship via the Internet, this number was at 23% in 2008, and now it’s roughly around 33% as of now.
When it comes to statistics on online dating, we cannot call this article to be complete without mentioning some of the dangers of this industry.
Dangers of Online Dating Statistics
There’s been a recent trend called ghosting, it is basically when one person ignores the other one without warning or obvious reasons. It’s never fun for the person that is being ignored, it brings lots of stress and discomfort.
When it comes to women, 18% of them said that they had never ghosted anyone, 26% stated that they had done it once, 29% stated that they had been ghosted in their lives, 27% said that they had been at both sides of it. The top 3 popular reasons for ghosting were: 50% if a person wanted to ignore confrontation with someone, 17% of women ghosted someone because their photos weren’t close to reality, and 10% ghosted someone because they were too clingy or obnoxious.
- As for men, 29% were “ghost free,” 15% ghosted someone once, 20% were ghosted, and 36% said that they had been at both ends of it. For men, the reasons are the same, but the percentages are different, 38% did it to avoid, 28% because of photos, 16% because of clinginess. Now let's talking about some lies that people tell to people who they meet online.
- As for women, 40% of them lied about going out again with a person while they didn't have any intention to. 9% of women used a service for dating while they were in a relationship, 7% of women lied about their income level, 6% of them lied about their age.
- As for men, 36% of them lied about going out again, 24% lied about their job and income level, 11% used a service for dating while they were in another relationship, 5% lied about their age.
People lie to avoid certain events, this includes dates IRL.
When it comes to lies that people use to avoid having a date with another person, 31% of women said that they had had a schedule conflict, 19% said something that was related to work, 19% said that it had been an exhausting day, 11% of women pretended that something new came up, and they weren’t able to go on a date.
As for men, 26% of them used fake schedule conflicts, 28% of them told their partners something about work, 5% said that it had been a busy day, 2% of men pretended as if something new came up.
Let’s continue on with the dangers of online dating statistics.
17% of all women who used Internet services for dating encountered some form of dating scam, 8% of them spent their money on fraudsters. As for men, this number is a lot higher, with 30% of men having experience with online dating scams and 10% of them spent their own money on them.
In general, if you are new to the dating market, we would advise you to be very careful with the things you may encounter online. You should search for some of the popular schemes that scammers use on dating sites and apps to keep yourself safe and secure.
Let’s end with some dating violence statistics. It is probably not surprising that women experience a lot more violence in dating. Fortunately, the percent of dates that were conducted via online services for dating that ended with some sort of violence is pretty low, it’s 4% for women, and the men’s number is lower than 1%. Online dating abuse statistics is not something that is often reported on, as it seems like people don’t walk to talk about these sorts of experiences.
Now let’s look into some dating statistics about millennials.
Millennial Dating Statistics
There are also some millennial dating statistics that are pretty much exclusive to them.
- We brought up the statistics on reasons for ghosting among the users of online services for dating, but when it comes to millennials, 50% of women admitted that they had ghosted someone just to avoid IRL confrontation. This statistic is lower for men, standing at 38%.
- 70% of all surveyed millennial women stated that they had used outdated photos in their profiles on dating services and apps while it’s a lot lower for men at 25%.
- 42% of all surveyed millennial women stated that they had exaggerated truth about themselves to be more interesting, while this statistic is a bit higher for men, standing at 58%.
- For millennial women, the main way of getting out of an unwanted date is to pretend like their phone is in the silent mode. Thus 44% of them stated that they had used this tactic in the past. As for men, this tactic is not as popular, only 33% of men stated that they had used it, but the most popular tactic to avoid a date among men is to pretend like they are busy at work, it’s 36% in case of men and 13% in case of women.
- Here come some big numbers, as millennials don’t seem to be fond of putting a ring on it in general. Only 58% of them got engaged in their lives, this number is a lot lower for Generation X at 15%, 9% for boomers, 3% for traditionalists.
While sure, there are some obvious factors that one should consider in the numbers above, as every following generation simply had more time to get engaged.
50% of millennial women claimed that they regret at least one relationship that was started via online dating, this number is a little lower for men, it’s 38%.
