Being single can be frustrating, especially if you don’t know where to go to meet local women. If you’ve been actively looking for a hookup, date, or relationship and haven’t had any luck, you’re not alone. As of 2014, more than half of Americans 16 and older were single.
Singles are everywhere, in every city, and all it takes is some effort to find them. To help American singles turn over a new leaf, we’ve listed the top five ways to meet women in your town, city, or state.
1. Join a Dating Site or App
Since the 1990s, approximately 8,000 dating sites have been created in the world and millions of people have met their match on app. It’s da bomb, as beloved hip hop duo Kris Kross would say.
Not only that, but online dating is the quickest and cheapest way to meet women in your area. Practically every dating site/app allows you to search by location, and practically every dating site/app offers a free membership to start.
Match is my dating site of choice, and I’ve used it to chat with guys, not paying a cent as long as they’re in my mutual matches.
Match is the head honcho of the online dating industry, and for good reason. It was founded in 1993 and officially launched in 1995; it has one of the largest audiences of any dating site (42 million members and 39 million monthly visitors). And it’s had the most success (Match has led to more romantic connections than every other dating site).
- Relationships: Friends, Dates, and Relationships
- Match System: Browse by zip, age, appearance, more
- Our Experts Say: Match has facilitated the most dates and relationships of any dating site, and its large audience and high success rate make it our top review. Our Review »
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
The free membership never expires and includes quite a lot. You can add your information and photos, view and like profiles, and flirt and communicate with mutual matches.
2. Through Friends and Family
You don’t have to go on this dating trek alone — your friends and family members can be there to support you and actually do some of the work for you. Let them know to keep their eyes peeled and their ears open whenever they’re at work, school, the gym, the doctor’s office, or anywhere else they may go. You never know who’s single.
I have proof that this works, too. I actually set up a family friend of mine with an acquaintance, and they’ve been together for 10 years now.
If you go this route, though, that means you need to be open to being set up on blind dates and having your loved ones somewhat involved in your dating life. It might be a bit weird at first, so maybe set up some boundaries at the beginning. For example, they can’t tell a potential date about your dating past.
3. Sign Up for an Interest Group, Sports Team, or Class
Joining an interest group (e.g., a book club), coed sports team, or educational class (e.g., cooking) can be good in a number of ways. In addition to being surrounded by new people, you’re also potentially getting exercise, learning something new, breaking out of your shell, enjoying the outdoors, and/or picking up a new hobby. These fun activities also make it easy to start a conversation because you automatically have something in common.
Some awesome resources for finding a local interest group, intramural sports team, or educational class include Meetup, Eventbrite, Ticketfly, imleagues, or your local college or university. Or you can simply Google something like “intramural sports near me” or “interest groups [enter city]” and pick something that looks fun to you.
4. Spend Time Volunteering
Whether you want to help animals, feed the homeless, clean up the beaches, fight discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, or make a political difference in your town, volunteering with a local nonprofit is a fantastic way to do that. Plus, you’re guaranteed to meet people you didn’t know before and who have similar values, goals, and lifestyles. Knowing those kinds of things right off the bat helps narrow down the field.
VolunteerMatch and GreatNonprofits are two sites that we love and that we’ve personally interviewed. You can read both articles here and here. On these sites, you can find the right volunteering opportunity for you by browsing by city, type of activity, and things like that, and you can read reviews written by fellow volunteers to see what kind of experiences they’ve had.
5. Go to Bars, Clubs, and Parties
For decades, going to a bar or club or attending a party have been tried-and-true ways to meet women. Maybe having a drink gives you the courage to approach a woman, or maybe the music makes it seem less stressful, serious, and intimidating. Whatever the case may be, don’t discount bars, clubs, and parties if that’s your kind of scene.
It doesn’t even have to be anything crazy — you could go to a friend’s weekly game night, a sibling’s monthly poker tournament, or a coworker’s quarterly happy hour at the restaurant down the street. Basically, try to say yes to as many outings as you can.
While this step is usually best for one-night stands, I’m sure most of us know someone who met their boyfriend/husband or girlfriend/wife at a bar, club, or party. One of my exes is someone I met at a party. One of my close friends is married to a guy she met at a party, and a friend of a friend has been dating someone she met at a bar for months now. It can happen to anyone.
Expanding Your Social Circle = Improving Your Dating Life
It’s a simple equation: The more you put yourself out there, the more people you meet. The more people you meet, the wider your social circle gets. The wider your social circle gets, the more you’ll increase your chances of finding that special someone. The more you increase your chances, the less time and effort you have to put into it.
So give these tips a try (maybe even one at a time), and we’re confident that you’ll see drastic changes to your dating life. Soon you won’t be part of that singles statistic!
