38 Statistics That Matter If You’re Trying To Find Love In America

1. If you date for three months then it’s likely you’ll be dating for four years. (Source)

2. Contrary to what you might expect, big cities are actually worse for meeting someone. Specifically, Los Angeles, New York City, and Miami are bad for meeting people. (Source)

3. Smaller cities that still have a sizable population are better. Colorado Springs, El Paso, and Louisville all indicate higher rates of relationship formation. (Source)

4. San Francisco has the highest rate of single males in the country. Memphis, TN has the highest rate of single females. (Source)

5. Divorce rates aren’t nearly as high as people think they are among full grown adults. The average is dragged down by people who marry very early. (Source)

6. If you get married or move in with someone at the age of 18 then there’s a 60% chance you’ll divorce or break up. (Source)

7. Wait until you’re 23 and those breakup chances drop to 30%. (Source)

8. In the last 50 years, the number of people living together without being married has increased by 900%. (Source)

9. Two thirds of all couples married in 2012 had already lived together for two or more years before they made the jump. (Source)

10. Barely a quarter of all Americans actually disapprove of couples living together without being married. In 1981, that disapproval number was at 45%. (Source)

11. Despite what you might see on the news, a vast majority of Americans approve of interracial marriage, 87%. That’s an increase of 38% since 1991. (Source)

12. While children generally weather divorces pretty well, the one exception is among kids in households where there’s a lot of conflict. If there’s a lot of conflict in your marriage then your children will likely be less well adjusted. In these cases, divorce is often an emotional relief for children. (Source)

13. However, children of divorce experience “serious social, emotional or psychological troubles” at a 15% higher rate than children whose parents never divorced. (Source)

14. And unfortunately, if you’re a child of divorce then you’re more likely to get a divorce yourself. If both members of a couple come from divorced families the likelihood increases by 200% from either the base 30% chance or, if you’re 18 when you marry, it increases from the higher 60%. What I’m saying is that an 18-year-old married couple where both partners are from divorced families is quite literally doomed. (Source)

15. Seriously, don’t get married until you’re at least 23 years old. There’s no reason you can’t wait that long and all the data says you’re basically screwed if you don’t.

16. If you wait until you’re 35 to get married then there’s only about a 5% chance that you’ll get divorced provided your partner is the same age. (Source)

17. Want to meet someone and start a relationship? Don’t go to a bar. Surveys show that only 2% of men and 9% of women have ever formed a relationship with someone they met at a bar. (Source)

18. Ladies, if he hasn’t called you within 24 hours after a date then there’s only a 12% chance he ever will. (Source)

19. Some people never make it out of middle school. 23% of men and women still ask friends to tell their love interest that they “like” them. This is only a slight step up from note passing. (Source)

20. Regarding long distance relationships, they only account for 2.9% of all relationships, a third of them are college students, and the average lifetime of an LTR is four and a half months. (Source)

21. Statistically, women dating online state that they prefer “nice guys” to “bad guys” or a “bit of both.” Men dating online claim they prefer “the modern career girl” over the “next door type.” (Source)

22. Online dating is weird. 26-year-old women have more online pursuers than the average man but, at age 48, men have twice as many online pursuers as the average women. (Source)

23. Women online lie about their weight, physical build, and their age. Men lie about their age, their height, and their income. (Source)

24. A third of women engaged in online dating have sex on the first date. (Source)

25. The number one relationship argument is about money. (Source)

26. In most relationships, the man is circa five years older than the woman. (Source)

27. According to an Esquire survey, 51% of women offer to pick up the check on a first date. (Source)

28. This Wikipedia entry on “First Dates” makes dating sound absolutely awful. Read it and you’ll never want to date again.

29. 57% of Americans have had sex outdoors. 48% of American women have faked an orgasm. 30% of men over 30 have paid for sex. (Source)

30. Only 34% of women say they think about sex every day and only 59% say they enjoy it a “great deal.” 70% of men think of it every day and 83% enjoy it a great deal. (Source)

31. Men, on average, sleep around nearly three times as much as women. The median for women is three partners in their lifetime while it’s eight partners for men. (Source)

32. Only 10% of all women have had more than 11 sexual partners in their lifetime. A full 38% of men have and 20% of men have slept with more than 21 different women. (Source)

33. A quarter of women almost never have an orgasm during sex. On the other hand, 75% of women usually or often do. Only 3% of men almost never do. (Source)

34. Half of women feel like they were too young the first time they had sex. (Source)

35. Most people who cheat are 50 years of age and older (21%). Only 8% of people between the ages of 18-29 admit to ever cheating. (Source)

36. Almost 70% of cheaters cheat with friends. Cheaters also tend to have a lot more sexual partners than the average, a median of 12 throughout their lifetime. So, while not all people with a lot of partners are cheater, all cheaters have had a lot of sex partners. (Source)

37. Only a third of men have actually fantasized about a threesome. (Source)

38. According to Psychology Today, the number one predictor of a relationship’s success is trust. This includes being reliable, dependable, and a source of real support during tough times. Everything else after that is negotiable. (Source)