Online dating has been around since the ’90s, and it’s become pretty commonplace in our lives. But how well is it really working? Is online dating getting people into the relationships they truly want? Is it actually leading to marriages that last?
You’ve probably heard stories about couples who met online, fell in love, and got married. Online dating success stories1 are all over the web. However, we wanted to go beyond anecdotal evidence and tell you about the online dating statistics regarding love and marriage.
1. People Who Meet Online Get Married Quicker
Research shows that people who meet online often head to the altar sooner2 than those who meet through friends, at work, at a bar, or other places like that. Michael Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Stanford, said there are a couple of reasons for this.
“You can be more selective because you have a bigger group to select from,” he said in an interview.3 “A lot of the information-gathering that courtship is really about is sped up by the information you can gather from the profiles and from a person before actually meeting them.”
2. At Least 10% of Marriages Start Through Online Dating
According to The Pew Research Center, about 1 in 10 relationships and marriages start online.4
We expect those numbers are only going to grow, as more than 49 million people have tried online dating, and nearly 8,000 dating sites exist5 in the world.
We also expect those numbers to grow because most people’s intent with online dating is to meet someone for marriage or at least a long-term relationship.
For example, 80% of Tinder users6 say that they’re looking for a relationship, not a hookup. Their actions, of course, may tell a different story.
3. Online Marriages Are Less Likely to End Within the First Year
Not only are people who are meeting online getting married sooner, but their marriages are also lasting longer than those of couples who didn’t meet online. The former group is less likely to separate or divorce7 within the first year of marriage than the latter.
This study was conducted by Philipp Hergovich, of the University of Vienna, and Josué Ortega, of the University of Essex, based on data from the National Academy of Sciences.
“We found that online dating corresponds with way more interracial marriages, and way stronger marriages, from a mathematics perspective,” Ortega said in an interview with Forbes.
4. Couples Who Meet Online Report Higher Marriage Satisfaction
This fact goes hand in hand with the last one. In addition to online couples making it through the first year of marriage more often than offline couples, they also say that they’re more satisfied in their relationship.8
This research paper, which is titled “Marital Satisfaction and Breakups Differ Across Online and Offline Meeting Venues,” was led by University of Chicago researchers, and the results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Marital outcomes are influenced by a variety of factors,” said John Cacioppo, the study’s lead author. “The results of this study are nevertheless encouraging, given the paradigm shift in terms of how Americans are meeting their spouses.”
Research into marriages that started online is still relatively new, and it’s changing with every generation.
A recent study from Arizona State University and Michigan State University, titled “The online dating effect: Where a couple meets predicts the quality of their marriage,” found almost the opposite result of Cacioppo’s study.9 It seems marital satisfaction may be more case-by-case.
5. Over 2 Million Couples Met on eharmony
eharmony is one of the most popular and successful dating sites in the world — launching in 2000 and having more than 30 million singles sign up. So it makes sense that eharmony would facilitate a majority of relationships when compared with some of its competitors.
According to eharmony, over 2 million couples have gotten into relationships thanks to its tried and true matchmaking services.
According to the site, approximately 542 members tie the knot each day, and in total more than 600,000 members have walked down the aisle.
6. eharmony’s Divorce Rate is 3.86%, Which is Lower Than the National Average of 50%
While we’re talking about eharmony, it’s also worth mentioning the site reports that its divorce rate is lower than that of the national average: 3.86% vs. 50%. We think eharmony’s 29 Dimensions of Compatibility Quiz may have something to do with it.
New members spend about 25-30 minutes filling out their profiles and answering in-depth questions. These include “What are you passionate about?” and “If your best friends had to pick four words to describe you, which four would they pick?”
7. One in Ten Young, Married Adults is on the Apps
From your favorite hobbies to your long-term goals, a lot needs to line up for you to be compatible with someone you’re considering dating. But before getting to any of that, double-check: Are they married?
According to the Institute for Family Studies, a shocking 10% of married people under age 39 admitted to being on one or more dating apps.10
Whether they’re actively dating, looking for hookups, or simply getting an illicit confidence boost is unclear. But it is clear that for singles just trying to find love, dealing with married daters is a bummer.
That being said, some sites, like Ashley Madison, specialize in affairs. At least there, everyone knows that non-monogamy is involved.
8. Over 80% of Millennials Would Marry a Different Race
The Pew Research Center reports that more than 8 and 10 millennials say they are open to marrying someone who isn’t the same race11 as them.
Business Insider found that millennials don’t think premarital sex is a big deal,12 prefer to live with a romantic partner before marrying him or her, and are waiting longer to get married than previous generations.
Almost 60% of millennials are single and have never been married compared to 16% of Generation Xers, 10% of baby boomers, and 4% of traditionalists.
9. Marriages That Start Online Are More Diverse
It isn’t just millennials and Gen Z as a whole who are more open-minded; it’s online daters. According to PsyPost, marriages that start online are more likely to be interracial and same-sex than ones that start offline.13
There are a variety of potential reasons for this increased diversity. It may be that online daters have more access to potential partners outside of their class and community. Same-sex singles use online dating more broadly in general,14 given that they may have a smaller offline dating pool.
It may also be that online daters are simply more open to a wider variety of partners. While online dating has become more broadly accepted, it’s still a particularly modern way to meet someone. That may select for who uses it.
10. Never-Married Singles Are 3 Times More Likely to Have Used Dating Apps
Dating-app usage varies widely by demographics, but it seems that lifetime marital status is pretty indicative of one’s history with dating apps. Pew Research Center found that 52% of adults who have never been married have used a dating app, compared to just 16% who are currently married.15
This can be explained, in large part, by the likely ages of never-married versus married adults. Given that most people marry at some point in their adulthood, we can surmise that the married population is older on average and less likely to have been single when online dating was even an option.
Still, it does suggest that when your married friends and family try to give you online dating advice, there’s a good chance they don’t know what they’re talking about.
These 10 Facts Prove That Finding a Spouse Through Online Dating is Definitely Possible
There’s a reason online dating is still around after all these decades — it works. The evidence is all around you, including in this article.
So if marriage is your dating end goal, online dating should be in your dating arsenal, along with being set up by friends and approaching strangers at bars and events. It definitely won’t hurt your chances!
- https://www.self.com/story/11-dating-app-success-stories-that-will-make-you-seriously-appreciate-tinder ↩︎
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/23/the-truth-about-online-dating-according-to-someone-who-has-been-studying-it-for-years/ ↩︎
- https://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/online-dating-has-made-romance-better-really/2270520/ ↩︎
- https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/02/key-findings-about-online-dating-in-the-u-s/ ↩︎
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2013/03/01/how-many-more-online-dating-sites-do-we-need/ ↩︎
- https://www.businessinsider.com/most-tinder-users-seek-meaningful-relationships-2016-9 ↩︎
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/10/25/theres-now-evidence-that-online-dating-causes-stronger-more-diverse-relationships/ ↩︎
- https://news.uchicago.edu/story/meeting-online-leads-happier-more-enduring-marriages ↩︎
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563223003242 ↩︎
- https://ifstudies.org/blog/1-in-10-married-young-adults-are-on-dating-sites- ↩︎
- https://www.pewresearch.org/2010/02/01/almost-all-millennials-accept-interracial-dating-and-marriage/ ↩︎
- https://www.businessinsider.com/how-millennials-gen-x-and-baby-boomers-approach-marriage-2017-11 ↩︎
- https://www.psypost.org/online-datings-long-term-effects-on-marital-outcomes-explored-in-recent-study/ ↩︎
- https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/02/key-findings-about-online-dating-in-the-u-s/ ↩︎
- https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/24/the-never-been-married-are-biggest-users-of-online-dating/ ↩︎
