Chances Are: Online Dating

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“For the busy and single, online dating has lost its taboo”


In this round of Chances Are we examine online dating. Specifically, deploying a special survey technique to avoid the effects of any social stigma (see here for more details) we find that 7.6% of the UK population have used an online dating site or app in the last 12 months.

Social media users were found to be five times more likely to have used such sites while those who work full time are four times more likely. Lower income levels were also found to be predictive of more online dating, but this could be due to its association with lower age. Reassuringly, being married was a significant and negative predictor of online dating. Of the unmarried sample, 19% reported using an online dating site, though somewhat worryingly 3% of married respondents did also admit to using one!

The research also revealed that respondents show little embarrassment on this topic. When asked directly, 6.7% were prepared to disclose using online dating sites, a little less than the true underlying 7.6% rate. We will continue to use these two measurement techniques in parallel to investigate which topics appear to cause most and least embarrassment in the general population.

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