App usage statistics for her dating app

By: Jason Lee – Relationship Science and Data Analyst Healthy Framework

Online dating apps and websites have successfully shifted from the shadows of obscurity to the forefront of the dating industry as now one of the most accepted and popular ways that singles date. What used to be characterized as an avenue for the awkward is now the mainstream way in which busy adults find efficient and easily accessible ways to meet other singles.

And as we might expect, anytime something enters the limelight, there are questions. Whether you’re a researcher interested in the industry, a single looking for some insight on how other people are dating online, or you’re just a data nerd like us—you want answers.

Well, good news, that’s what we’re here to deliver today with the results of our most recent data study.

Methodology Overview

Our study asked 500 adults a series of multiple-choice, single-answer questions about their online dating habits. In order to qualify for the study, respondents were asked whether or not they had used at least one online dating application within the past 12 months. If they answered ‘no’, the respondent was excluded from the study.

Here are a few additional highlights of the methodology:

• All respondents were required to live in the United States
• Equal numbers of respondents were polled across four main age brackets: (18-24), (25-34), (35-44), and (45-54)
• Within each age bracket, an equal number of men and women were polled
• Extensive quality checks were employed to protect data quality
• Data was parsed by age groups, genders, as well as any other pertinent demographics we found impactful to the results.

The Questions Our Study Answers

• How Many People Check Their Online Dating Accounts at Work?
• How Many Online Dating Apps Do People Use at One Time?
• What Device Do People Use to Access Online Dating Apps?
• How Frequently Do People Check Their Online Dating Accounts?
• What Time of Day Do People Access Their Online Dating Apps?

Licensing of Results and Data

Use of this data is allowed as long as proper attribution is given. For use on websites or written media sources, attribution to Healthy Framework and a link to the website or data study is required. For use on audio or video sources, attribution to Healthy Framework is required with a link to the website or data study in the video description area or accompanying article. If you have further questions or to request additional data, please contact [email protected].

Key Findings and Takeaways

Before we dive into the full data sets and conclusions, we wanted to share a few quick teasers of some of the things we learned and found interesting throughout the study.

• Over 74% of people admit to checking their online dating accounts while at work. This includes 34.13% who say they check them regularly and 39.88% who say yes they check them but only rarely.
• The number of men who regularly check their online dating accounts while at work is significantly higher than the number of women. 42.91% of men claim they check their online dating accounts regularly while at work, as opposed to only 25.20% of women.
• Using exactly 2 dating apps at one time was the most popular response across all age brackets at 44.44%. People 45-54 years old were the most likely to only use one dating app at a time (33.60%). 75.4% of all respondents use at least two dating apps.
• Men were far more likely to use 3 or more dating apps at one time than women. The results were 36.62% for men and 25.20% for women.
• 79.37% of respondents across all categories say they check their online dating accounts at least one time per day. The youngest group studied (18-24 years old) was the least likely to check their accounts multiple times per day (42.06%).
• The majority of respondents say they primarily use their phone to access their online dating accounts (78.17%). The statistics were nearly identical across all age brackets for phone usage (between 77.78% and 78.57%).
• The older users were, the more likely they were to use their online dating accounts in the evening. Additionally, the younger users were, the more likely they were to use their online dating accounts in the afternoon.
• Men were more likely to use their online dating apps in the morning (10.63% versus only 6.80%). Conversely, women were much more likely to use their apps in the evening (40.00% versus only 29.92%).

Table of Contents

How Many People Check Their Online Dating Accounts at Work?

It can be tough to stay focused at work (or doing anything for that matter) when you get the notification that something has happened on an online dating application. Is it a new match? A new message? A new like? Whatever it may be, it’s probably safe to assume that everyone actively online dating has at least felt the temptation at least once to check their accounts during work hours.

Well, instead of assuming, we wanted to find out just how many people are checking their online dating accounts while at work. Our team asked, “When actively online dating, do you check your online dating accounts at work?” The options for answers were ‘Yes, regularly’, ‘Yes, but rarely’, or ‘No’,

Key Takeaways

• Across all age brackets, genders, and demographics, 74.30% of all respondents admitted to checking their online dating accounts while at work. More specifically, 34.26% answered that they check their accounts regularly, while 40.04% answered they check their accounts, but only rarely.
• Men across all age brackets were significantly more inclined to regularly check their online dating accounts during work hours. 43.25% of male respondents answered ‘Yes, regularly,’ while only 25.20% of females selected this answer.
• Younger singles were the least likely to check their online dating accounts regularly during work hours. Only 25.40% of people aged 18-25 said they do this regularly. The highest percentage of people responding that they check their accounts regularly were people in the 25-34 age bracket at 43.31%.

Overall Results

Our Analysis and Opinion

We weren’t super surprised that a majority of people were at least to some degree checking their online dating accounts while at work. What did get interesting for us, though, was when we looked at the percentage of people who regularly check their accounts at work broken down by gender and age.

Pop culture would probably lead you to believe that younger singles would be more glued to their devices. But, in fact, they were the least likely to regularly check their online dating accounts while at work. Now, this could have something to do with the types of jobs that younger people tend to hold, but that would require a deeper study.

What was also interesting was that just under half of men regularly check their online dating accounts at work while it was only about a quarter of the respondents for women. We don’t really have any conclusions to draw from that, but we did find it interesting.

Checking Online Dating Accounts at Work – Raw Data

How Many Online Dating Apps Do People Use at One Time?

When it comes to options for online dating applications, singles have thousands to choose from. From major mainstream options to laser-focused niche dating apps, the list of avenues for singles looking to digitally find love is extensive.

This begs an important question—how many online dating applications are people using at one time? Do people tend to take a quality over quantity approach and stick to one option, or are people playing a numbers game and looking to use multiple apps to get the most access to singles possible?

We asked respondents, “When actively online dating, how many online dating apps or websites do you actively use at once?” The options for answers were 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5+.

Key Takeaways

• 75.4% of respondents across all age brackets, genders, and demographics use at least two online dating apps.
• The most popular answer from respondents across all age brackets, genders, and demographics was ‘2’ dating apps at 44.44%.
• Men were far more likely than women to use 3 or more dating apps (36.62% of men versus 25.20% of women)
• Older people (45-54 years old) were far more likely to use only one dating app than the younger age groups. 33.60% in the 45-54 age group responded they only use one app. All three of the other age brackets were between 20.47% and 22.22% responding they only use one dating app at a time.

Overall Results

Our Analysis and Opinion

We expected this one to come in somewhere between two and three apps, and the data lived up to our initial prediction. What would be interesting to dig further into is how people interpret the term actively. Do people consider just having an active profile on a site sitting idle as active or do they consider being an active participant as actively using? Our theory is that most people interpret it as the latter, which is why we saw this as a viable question and a meaningful set of data.

Number of Online Dating Apps Used at Once – Raw Data

How Frequently Do People Check Their Online Dating Accounts?

Ever wonder how frequently everyone else is checking their online dating accounts? Maybe you’re wondering if your love interest isn’t quite as active as you are or you want to make sure you’re not becoming obsessed with the process? Regardless of the reason, we have the data and statistics you’re looking for.

We asked respondents, “When actively online dating, how often do you check your online dating accounts?” with the options of responses of ‘Multiple times a day’, ‘Once daily’, ‘A few times per week’, ‘Once a week’, or ‘Once a month or less’.

Key Takeaways

• Just over half of respondents across all age brackets, genders, and demographics responded that they check their online dating accounts multiple times a day (51.59%).
• 79.37% of respondents across all age brackets, genders, and demographics responded that they check their accounts at least once per day (this includes the ‘Once daily’ and ‘Multiple times a day’ responses).
• The frequency in which men and women check their online dating accounts was nearly identical. Both men and women were within 3 percentage points of the other on all responses.
• The 18-24 year old age group was the least likely to check their accounts multiple times per day (42.06%). The 35-44 year old age group was the most likely at 57.94%, followed by the 25-34 year old age group (55.12%), and then the 45-54 year old age group (51.20%).

Overall Results

Our Analysis and Opinion

For singles that are worried about getting responses to their messages, this has to be promising news to see that such a high percentage of singles check their online dating accounts at least once a day. Now, if they have several hundred messages in their inbox before yours, that may still be a problem, but this at least should be some promising hope for people who may be struggling or hesitant to try things out.

What’s also interesting is that the percentage of people who don’t check their accounts daily was still a rather large piece of the pie, especially in the 18-24 and 45-54 age brackets. The takeaway for singles here is that you shouldn’t get upset if you don’t get a response back the same day you send it. The chances are still statistically pretty good that the person you’re messaging doesn’t check their account every single day. Additionally, “checking their account” could only refer to responding to one message or a very small period of time.

Frequency of Checking Online Dating Apps – Raw Data

What Device Do People Use to Access Online Dating Apps?

With such an active and on-the-go society over the past few years, it seems pretty safe to assume that most people are probably accessing their online dating accounts from their phones. However, as the world shifts to where more people are working from home, does that change? And more importantly, are those initial assumptions even correct?

In our next question, we wanted to find out which devices people were using to access their online dating accounts. It’s important to point out that this question was not asking whether they use downloadable apps or browser-based applications. It was looking at what device they’re using to access one or the other or both.

The question asked was, “When actively online dating, what device do you most often use to access your dating accounts?” The potential responses were ‘Phone’, ‘Tablet’, ‘Computer’, or ‘A mix of devices’.

Key Takeaways

• Over three-fourths of the respondents across all age brackets, genders, and demographics stated that they use their phone to access their accounts.
• Results in all categories were nearly identical across all age brackets.
• Females were slightly more likely to use a phone to access their dating accounts than men (82.00% versus 74.41%)

Overall Results

Our Analysis and Opinion

For our team, there were no shocks here. We anticipated an impressive showing from the phone, and we were not disappointed. What was interesting to us was how similar the statistics were across every age bracket. We did see some differences between males and females, but even those differences were small.

Device Used to Access Online Dating Accounts – Raw Data

What Time of Day Do People Access Their Online Dating Apps?

There’s always been some debate about when online dating apps are the most highly trafficked. This information becomes especially important for apps that require mutual interaction between parties on the app at the same time.

So, is there a fixed time when more people are checking and using their online dating accounts? We wanted to get to the bottom of it. We asked, “When actively online dating, what time of the day do you most frequently use your online dating accounts?” The possible responses were ‘Morning’, ‘Afternoon’, ‘Evening,’ or ‘All different times’.

Key Takeaways

• ‘All different times’ was the leading response at 37.70% with the evening at a very close second (34.92%).
• Men were more likely to use their online dating apps in the morning (10.63% versus 6.87% for the women).
• Women were more likely to use their online dating apps in the evening (40.00% versus 29.92% for the men).
• The likelihood of users to access their apps in the evening increased with age.
  • 18-24 years old: 23.81%
  • 25-34 years old: 33.86%
  • 35-44 years old: 38.89%
  • 45-54 years old: 43.20%
• The likelihood of users to access their apps in the afternoon decreased with age.
  • 25-34 years old: 22.83%
  • 35-44 years old: 12.70%
  • 45-54 years old: 9.60%

Overall Results

Our Analysis and Opinion

There were quite a few things we found interesting (and surprising) when looking through the data on this question. First, our prediction was that evenings would be the leader, but they came in a close second to all different times. What this probably means is that a large percentage of dating app users are either highly responsive and reactive to notifications or they have busy schedules and fit in online dating time when they can.

Once you remove this section of the respondents, the evening does have a commanding lead over the other options as we expected. What was also interesting was that through every single age bracket, the older users got, the less likely they were to use their apps in the afternoon and the more likely they were to use them at night.

In other words, users in the 45-54 bracket were the most likely to use their apps at night and the least likely to use them in the afternoon. Users in the 18-24 bracket were more likely to use their apps in the afternoon and less likely to use them in the evening. We don’t have any working theories on the reason for this, but data can be surprisingly beautiful at times.

Time of Day Using Online Dating Accounts – Raw Data

Conclusion and Future Studies

It is our hope that this information has proved insightful, interesting, and as a helpful look into the online dating app usage patterns of people in the United States. If you would like to share or use the data from this study, you are free to do so—as long as proper attribution is given.

• For use on websites or written media sources, attribution to Healthy Framework and a link to the website or data study is required.
• For use on audio or video sources, attribution to Healthy Framework is required with a link to the website or data study in the description area or accompanying article.
• If you have further questions or to request additional data, please contact [email protected].

Written By:Jason Lee

Jason Lee is a data analyst with a passion for studying online dating, relationships, personal growth, healthcare, and finance. In 2008, Jason earned a Bachelors of Science from the University of Florida, where he studied business and finance and taught interpersonal communication.

His work has been featured in the likes of The USA Today, MSN, The Motley Fool, Net Health, and The Simple Dollar. As a business owner, relationship strategist, dating coach, and officer in the U.S. military, Jason enjoys sharing his unique knowledge base with the rest of the world.