Data is beautiful, but summary statistics can be misleading. As a woman who did a fair amount of internet dating here was my experience. First, I was, indeed, deluged with messages from · A study of over 1, online daters in the US and UK conducted by global research agency OpinionMatters founds some very interesting statistics. A total of 53% of US Missing: data Distilling the world's data, information & knowledge into beautiful infographics & visualizationsMissing: online dating ... read more
This could be because it still remains easier to find other members of the LGB community online, so this could be set to change with more and more people far more open about their sexuality.
So now we know what type of people have used online dating platforms, what online dating statistics are generated if we look at what platforms are the most popular? While some online dating statistics vary in some findings, there is a particular area that seems to stand out across any study.
The resounding answer is that Tinder seems to be the most used by far. These statistics are perhaps not surprising - it is so well known and the ease of use within the app is undoubtedly a reason why it has been so successful.
Sadly there are no hard statistics that will prove what online daters look for first in the profile of either female users or male users.
All men and women will typically look for something different in many online profiles. However, if you use online dating as a way to meet men or women for romantic purposes, there are a number of things that can improve your chances of striking up a connection with someone.
Firstly, it can be a great idea to ask your friends for help. These could well be traits that you would have otherwise overlooked. Cliches often have the effect of making people roll their eyes when they read many online dating profiles. Statistics do show that people in general - if they use online dating or not - are all drawn to those that tend to be happier.
There seem to be no statistics that prove which interests or hobbies larger sections of the population are drawn to over others. Finally, in terms of photos, again there are no hard statistics that have an overriding direction on what we should all use in online dating profiles dating-wise. Presumably, this is because it points towards how we all have highly diverging wants and needs in a partner.
With honesty in mind, it is better in the long run to use an up-to-date photo. Some statistics say that action shots get the most hits but some statistics argue that photographic portraits are the best for use online. It is all very well looking at online dating statistics in terms of demographics, but before users decide whether dating sites or apps will be useful for their purposes, they need to know what other users intend when they sign up for online dating platforms.
So what are the reasons people use online dating? Is it really to find a lifetime partner? Or is it more often than not only ever used to find a sexual partner? Is it to have an affair? Kaspersky did some work on generating online dating statistics behind why both male users and female users sign up to online dating sites. Some of their findings were quite surprising.
While the majority of people did admit that they have used a dating site simply for fun, a large proportion of people use them to find friends, too. The next largest reason is perhaps an intention that sits somewhere in between finding friends and just having a good time - around a quarter of all users or online daters, users say they sign up to sites or apps to have a good time with an interesting person.
There are, of course, people who use it with the more commonly believed stereotypical intentions in mind.
However, in terms of people using online dating sites or apps to find a serious relationship or marriage partner, men still were the biggest group to admit to using them for this intention. This is perhaps surprising - many people would imagine that it is women who used online dating as a means to find a committed partner. Dating online in the main remains safe. If you use online dating as a way to meet other female users or other male users, you will be totally secure as long as you follow a few recommendations to maintain your safety at all times.
These measures protect two parts of your life - both physically if you ever meet someone you have contacted online and also your online data.
Both are crucial to keeping secure so that you do not fall victim to any crimes. With respect to your online data, it is imperative that you secure your networks and your devices. This means using strong passwords and password management systems to ensure that your devices cannot be hacked into. Secondly, ensure that you are always using a secure network.
If you are in your home, protect your own network by using a password - again with the help of a password management system - and if you are out, ensure that you either do not divulge any passwords over the network you're using or any sensitive data. This means you never tell the people you are contacting your address, your bank account details, or any other unique identifiers that can work towards a picture that helps an online criminal commit identity theft.
Secondly, ensure you do not become part of another horrible set of statistics as a person that has an ill-fated meeting with a person they have met online. Both men and women are both capable of falling victim to someone who says they are someone they are not. There are some men and women out there that use online dating sites to meet others with wrongful intentions. To ensure that you protect yourself against these men or women when you use online dating, try to meet them in public places until you are sure they are safe.
Always tell others where you are going and who you are meeting too so that they know your movements in advance. All these things will work towards maintaining your safety at all times. With the rise of internet dating, there has also been a rise in how people abuse the system of online dating sites and apps. As such there are, quite rightly, a number of concerns the public has when they are dating online and meeting other men and women through the use of the internet.
The implications of this are large and can have a material impact on a user's life if hackers do in fact manage to get their illegal software installed on users' handsets and networks. Many more concerns continue along the same vein with a similar portion of all users admitting their worries. Additionally, there are some other more physical worries and concerns that users say prey on their minds.
Some male users and female users of a dating site or app say that they worry about meeting up with someone in real life who is not who they say they are. From there, users either are anxious that at best the person they eventually meet has simply lied about their physical appearance or worse that they are a criminal seeking out vulnerable people to attack in either a physical or psychological way.
Yet of all the concerns that users were questioned about, less than half of them admitted that they worry about the fear of rejection. Given all the pitfalls that can happen from being too relaxed about giving out your personal information over a dating site or app, many people do try to hold back on what they say about themselves.
This can be counter-productive, however, when you are trying to meet someone online, how long does it take before online daters start giving out personal information.
The general statistics from Kaspersky found that there was broadly a fairly balanced approach to how long divulging details take. For some, it takes more than several months, yet for others, it takes just minutes or hours. Breaking down these online statistics further, a quarter of all female users take more than several months to give out information.
But in this day and age, where we all use online dating far more and it is so much more accepted by our culture, how many users lie on their profile? Looking at the statistics, the biggest proportion of users that lie on their profiles tend to be those in their late 30s to mids. Of that group, the ones most likely to lie are male.
They say that they do this for fun , though it is not clear what they lie about to get their kicks from. Other interesting statistics are that younger women or men, in the 16 age group are likely to lie on their profiles to protect themselves.
It is female users in this group particularly that are most prone to do this. Finally, one very interesting set of online statistics comes from those that want to use online dating as a way to meet people, but they lie because they are afraid that they will be recognized by others that they know already. Plus, broadly speaking, this is a reason that is common across all age groups and both genders. Younger women are just as likely as older men to lie on their profiles to stop themselves from being recognized by friends or acquaintances.
While they can be very successful, a lot of people still have to go through a lot of rejections or radio silence from people they message. Bearing this lack of statistics in mind, it is good to take a more qualitative approach to improve your hit rate if you are struggling to make a match.
Ensure that you are actually messaging people that say they are into someone with your character or physical traits. It is, therefore, recommended that if you use online dating, wherever you are in the world to be as honest as possible. If you like someone, you would be crushed to find out that they were not who they say they were after you continued to contact them. You, therefore, need to have a similar approach to the men and women you contact when you use online dating as a means to meet people.
That respect for their wants will go a long way. There are a couple of categories of downsides to online dating. The obvious is that the relationship started after using an online dating site is not what they wanted it to be.
By far, women are the biggest of the online dating statistics that have found themselves to be on the receiving end of negative behavior, like being contacted continually after asking not to be. According to the statistics, some have even been subjected to being sent sexually explicit texts or images when they were not asked for.
That is not to say that only female online daters say they have experienced this type of behavior. A large percentage of male users found in our statistics say that they have been subjected to the same sorts of actions from the users they have interacted with. While this seems to be a huge downside to online dating, it is possible to argue that this would happen in the realms of dating that started in more traditional routes too.
Bearing that in mind, it is important to also be aware of a downside to online dating that cannot occur when meeting potential partners in more traditional ways. Being the victim of identity theft is a huge problem with online dating, and online dating statistics have shown that the technical or data leak problems that have come about due to the use of online dating are substantial.
These statistics are quite stark. Another large increase can be seen when users are asked to share private or sensitive details. There are a number of downsides to the use of online dating - a few of which we have mentioned here already which a number of statistics and studies have emphasized. One of the biggest downsides is when you meet someone who has different intentions to you for the results they want to see from using dating websites and apps.
This can mean that you may want to meet men or women that want just sex after they contact a person they have met online, while you were actually signing up to a site's service to start relationships. Other downsides include meeting someone who is not who they say they are. This lying can have small or large ramifications. It could be that the men or women you have been messaging are simply lying about their height or true hair color.
Couples who met online are nearly 3 times as likely to get divorced as couples that met face-to-face. According to the Association for Psychological Science, reviewing multiple candidates causes people to be more judgmental and inclined to dismiss a not-quite-perfect candidate than they otherwise would be in a face-to-face meeting.
Ryan Anderson, Ph. But who we end up becoming and how much we like that person are more in our control than we tend to think they are. Ryan Anderson Ph. The Mating Game.
The Ugly Truth About Online Dating Are we sacrificing love for convenience? Posted September 6, Reviewed by Lybi Ma Share.
Research says one-third of all people who use online dating sites have never actually gone on a date with someone they met online. A study showed that reviewing multiple dating candidates online causes people to be more judgmental about them. About the Author. Read Next. Back Psychology Today. Back Find a Therapist. Get Help Find a Therapist Find a Treatment Center Find a Psychiatrist Find a Support Group Find Teletherapy Members Login Sign Up United States Austin, TX Brooklyn, NY Chicago, IL Denver, CO Houston, TX Los Angeles, CA New York, NY Portland, OR San Diego, CA San Francisco, CA Seattle, WA Washington, DC.
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In this article, we'll be looking at the statistics that make up the mysterious world of online dating. More and more are using online dating to find their match, and this number is growing every year. But has the huge growth in online dating sites and apps actually helped us be more successful in our love lives?
How many of us who have ever used a dating site as a way to meet someone, have met someone that we have started a serious relationship with?
Has the increased usage of dating sites and apps simply improved the quantity we date as opposed to the quality? Here in this article, we look at online dating statistics and what users say about their success with using online dating sites to help their love lives.
We have compiled over 97 different facts and statistics about online dating. We investigate what online daters say about any relationship that they have started online.
We ask if they say they have ever found true love and whether they like someone seriously through the use of online dating sites and apps. It goes without saying that the use of dating sites or apps has increased and that there are more and more online dating users looking to start a relationship with men or women around the world. Below, we look at the exact number of online dating users in the US between and the projected usage up to While the rate of growth slows down, we can see that over 7 years, from , there are going to be an extra 10 million people using online dating platforms as a way to meet someone.
If you consider that apps like Tinder were established less than 10 years ago, who knows how we will use a dating site or app years in the future. More and more dating sites or apps will use our online information to target us so that we make more efficient use of the online dating experience. People are increasingly more open about their sexual orientation and sexual preferences.
This gives dating sites and apps more scope to focus on specific sections of the population. So what are the sections of the population that have used a dating site or app? It perhaps goes without saying that more and more people have online dated, but who are the biggest users exactly? And more importantly, what percentage of those have ever married or been in a committed relationship with someone they met on a dating site or app?
In the below graph, we can see that just under a third of the US population have ever used a dating site or app. The types of people that use online dating platforms also produce a lot of interesting online dating statistics too.
While the race of those using online dating users is broadly equal, as well as the usage by gender is about equal, the LGB community is far more prevalent in terms of online dating. Interestingly, it is this section of the population that has the greatest number of successful relationships, too, when it comes to meeting someone online. Another way to categorize online daters is to see what age range they fall into.
The biggest users in that respect, by far, are those in their twenties. Almost half of those that have ever used a dating site fall into this bracket.
Even a different study by YouGov confirms the differences between men and women when it comes to using online dating sites. While the figures are not exactly the same as those found above, YouGov found that almost 40 percent of all men have used online dating as a way to find a partner online. Breaking down online daters and online website users into where they come from in the USA also generates some enlightening online dating statistics.
There are some apps that are used by perhaps predictably larger amounts of the population in certain regions simply down to the natural makeup of the public - like However, eHarmony sees most of its users, at That is a huge proportion of their users that come from just one area. As briefly alluded to from our first graph, the younger generations seem to be the main users of online dating sites and apps. According to YouGov, it is almost half of the population of year-olds in the US say they have ever used a dating site or app.
By far the biggest stand-out dating statistics studies, that see who has ever used a dating website, highlight that the huge section of society that has logged onto a dating site or app are members of the LGB community. This could be because it still remains easier to find other members of the LGB community online, so this could be set to change with more and more people far more open about their sexuality.
So now we know what type of people have used online dating platforms, what online dating statistics are generated if we look at what platforms are the most popular?
While some online dating statistics vary in some findings, there is a particular area that seems to stand out across any study. The resounding answer is that Tinder seems to be the most used by far. These statistics are perhaps not surprising - it is so well known and the ease of use within the app is undoubtedly a reason why it has been so successful. Sadly there are no hard statistics that will prove what online daters look for first in the profile of either female users or male users.
All men and women will typically look for something different in many online profiles. However, if you use online dating as a way to meet men or women for romantic purposes, there are a number of things that can improve your chances of striking up a connection with someone. Firstly, it can be a great idea to ask your friends for help. These could well be traits that you would have otherwise overlooked.
Cliches often have the effect of making people roll their eyes when they read many online dating profiles. Statistics do show that people in general - if they use online dating or not - are all drawn to those that tend to be happier. There seem to be no statistics that prove which interests or hobbies larger sections of the population are drawn to over others. Finally, in terms of photos, again there are no hard statistics that have an overriding direction on what we should all use in online dating profiles dating-wise.
Presumably, this is because it points towards how we all have highly diverging wants and needs in a partner. With honesty in mind, it is better in the long run to use an up-to-date photo. Some statistics say that action shots get the most hits but some statistics argue that photographic portraits are the best for use online. It is all very well looking at online dating statistics in terms of demographics, but before users decide whether dating sites or apps will be useful for their purposes, they need to know what other users intend when they sign up for online dating platforms.
So what are the reasons people use online dating? Is it really to find a lifetime partner? Or is it more often than not only ever used to find a sexual partner? Is it to have an affair?
Kaspersky did some work on generating online dating statistics behind why both male users and female users sign up to online dating sites. Some of their findings were quite surprising.
While the majority of people did admit that they have used a dating site simply for fun, a large proportion of people use them to find friends, too. The next largest reason is perhaps an intention that sits somewhere in between finding friends and just having a good time - around a quarter of all users or online daters, users say they sign up to sites or apps to have a good time with an interesting person.
There are, of course, people who use it with the more commonly believed stereotypical intentions in mind. However, in terms of people using online dating sites or apps to find a serious relationship or marriage partner, men still were the biggest group to admit to using them for this intention. This is perhaps surprising - many people would imagine that it is women who used online dating as a means to find a committed partner.
Dating online in the main remains safe. If you use online dating as a way to meet other female users or other male users, you will be totally secure as long as you follow a few recommendations to maintain your safety at all times. These measures protect two parts of your life - both physically if you ever meet someone you have contacted online and also your online data.
Both are crucial to keeping secure so that you do not fall victim to any crimes. With respect to your online data, it is imperative that you secure your networks and your devices. This means using strong passwords and password management systems to ensure that your devices cannot be hacked into.
Secondly, ensure that you are always using a secure network. If you are in your home, protect your own network by using a password - again with the help of a password management system - and if you are out, ensure that you either do not divulge any passwords over the network you're using or any sensitive data. This means you never tell the people you are contacting your address, your bank account details, or any other unique identifiers that can work towards a picture that helps an online criminal commit identity theft.
Secondly, ensure you do not become part of another horrible set of statistics as a person that has an ill-fated meeting with a person they have met online. Both men and women are both capable of falling victim to someone who says they are someone they are not.
There are some men and women out there that use online dating sites to meet others with wrongful intentions. To ensure that you protect yourself against these men or women when you use online dating, try to meet them in public places until you are sure they are safe.
Always tell others where you are going and who you are meeting too so that they know your movements in advance. All these things will work towards maintaining your safety at all times. With the rise of internet dating, there has also been a rise in how people abuse the system of online dating sites and apps. As such there are, quite rightly, a number of concerns the public has when they are dating online and meeting other men and women through the use of the internet. The implications of this are large and can have a material impact on a user's life if hackers do in fact manage to get their illegal software installed on users' handsets and networks.
Many more concerns continue along the same vein with a similar portion of all users admitting their worries. Additionally, there are some other more physical worries and concerns that users say prey on their minds. Some male users and female users of a dating site or app say that they worry about meeting up with someone in real life who is not who they say they are.
From there, users either are anxious that at best the person they eventually meet has simply lied about their physical appearance or worse that they are a criminal seeking out vulnerable people to attack in either a physical or psychological way. Yet of all the concerns that users were questioned about, less than half of them admitted that they worry about the fear of rejection. Given all the pitfalls that can happen from being too relaxed about giving out your personal information over a dating site or app, many people do try to hold back on what they say about themselves.
This can be counter-productive, however, when you are trying to meet someone online, how long does it take before online daters start giving out personal information. The general statistics from Kaspersky found that there was broadly a fairly balanced approach to how long divulging details take. For some, it takes more than several months, yet for others, it takes just minutes or hours. Breaking down these online statistics further, a quarter of all female users take more than several months to give out information.
But in this day and age, where we all use online dating far more and it is so much more accepted by our culture, how many users lie on their profile? Looking at the statistics, the biggest proportion of users that lie on their profiles tend to be those in their late 30s to mids.
Of that group, the ones most likely to lie are male. They say that they do this for fun , though it is not clear what they lie about to get their kicks from. Other interesting statistics are that younger women or men, in the 16 age group are likely to lie on their profiles to protect themselves. It is female users in this group particularly that are most prone to do this.
Finally, one very interesting set of online statistics comes from those that want to use online dating as a way to meet people, but they lie because they are afraid that they will be recognized by others that they know already.
Distilling the world's data, information & knowledge into beautiful infographics & visualizationsMissing: online dating Data is beautiful, but summary statistics can be misleading. As a woman who did a fair amount of internet dating here was my experience. First, I was, indeed, deluged with messages from · A study of over 1, online daters in the US and UK conducted by global research agency OpinionMatters founds some very interesting statistics. A total of 53% of US Missing: data ... read more
Mental Health Addiction Anxiety ADHD Asperger's Autism Bipolar Disorder Chronic Pain Depression Eating Disorders. It goes without saying that the use of dating sites or apps has increased and that there are more and more online dating users looking to start a relationship with men or women around the world. For some, it takes more than several months, yet for others, it takes just minutes or hours. A study showed that reviewing multiple dating candidates online causes people to be more judgmental about them. With the popularity of sites like eHarmony, Match. Breaking down these online statistics further, a quarter of all female users take more than several months to give out information. These could well be traits that you would have otherwise overlooked.
Plus many statistics show that too many of us are guilty of not using strict or stringent enough security measures while we are online. Perhaps one of the less thought-about online dating statistics is how to stay safe while dating online. The statistics behind the success rate of online dating around vary slightly according to the studies you look at. This means protecting our devices with passwords and ensuring that our accounts in whatever apps or dating websites we use are protected with strong passwords too. Yet, data is beautiful online dating, it is incredibly important for us all to do this so that when we meet someone, we know we are going to meet someone who has been telling us the truth. eHarmony, one data is beautiful online dating the first online dating sites, conducted studies to find out where couples meet. There are a couple of categories of downsides to online dating.