Most Single Americans Aren't Looking to Date. Here's the Data

The Number That Changes How You Read the Singles Market

Census data shows 42% of adults are unpartnered, which sounds like an enormous pool. Pew's 2022 survey of single Americans supplies the corrective: most of those people aren't in the market. Asked whether they were looking for a committed relationship, casual dates, or either, 57% of singles said none of the above. The share looking — 42% — was down from 49% just three years earlier.

That reframes the math of dating in a way that's easy to miss. The relevant pool isn't "single people"; it's "single people who are looking," which is well under half of singles, and shrinking. It also reframes a familiar frustration: if it feels like a lot of matches and conversations go nowhere, part of the explanation is that a substantial share of people with active profiles aren't actually trying to meet anyone.

The Decline Is Mostly Men

The three-point drop in singles looking to date, from 49% to 42%, wasn't evenly distributed. Pew found it was driven primarily by single men, whose interest in dating fell noticeably while single women's held roughly steady. Combined with the Census finding that under-40 men are more likely than women to be unpartnered, the result is a specific and under-discussed shape to the market: more single young men, fewer of them looking.

The reasons singles gave for not looking were unglamorous and mostly not about dating apps: enjoying being single, and having other priorities — work, friendships, family, personal goals. Some of it is the burnout that's become a genre of its own; some of it is simply a life stage where partnership isn't the priority. Either way, the data cautions against reading disengagement as a verdict on any one person's prospects. A lot of the people not responding aren't rejecting you; they've stepped off the field.

What the People Who Are Looking Want

Among the 42% who are in the market, Pew asked what they wanted:

The gender split on commitment is large: 41% of women looking wanted a committed relationship exclusively, versus 25% of men. The "only casual" group, at 17%, is much smaller than the reputation of app-era dating would suggest — the modal single person who's looking is open to a relationship. Which means the ambiguity that defines so much of modern dating, the situationships and endless talking stages, isn't mainly a product of what people want. It's a product of nobody saying so — the case for raising direction early is that most people across the table would welcome it.

Even the People Looking Mostly Aren't on Apps

The finding with the most direct implication for strategy: among singles who were actively looking, only 45% had used an online dating site or app in the past year. Under 50 it was 53%; over 50, 26%. Apps are the dominant channel for couples who form — the Stanford data puts online meeting at nearly 40% of heterosexual couples — but that's compatible with roughly half of active daters not using them in a given year. Some are meeting people through work, friends, and the non-app channels that still account for a majority of relationships; some are cycling on and off.

The practical read is that the app pool and the looking pool overlap less than most people assume. Anyone whose dating life runs entirely through swiping is drawing from roughly half of the people who'd actually be interested — and that's before subtracting the profiles belonging to the 57% who aren't looking at all.

Reading the Market Honestly

Three findings, one picture. A majority of singles aren't looking. Of the minority who are, most want a relationship. And of that group, about half aren't on apps in any given year. The pool of people genuinely trying to meet someone is smaller than the count of singles by a wide margin — but it's more serious, and more reachable through intentional channels, than the swipe-era discourse implies. The right response isn't to widen the net across an app full of people who've opted out. It's to spend effort where the looking, relationship-minded minority actually is, and to make a first meeting cheap enough — a 10-minute video date rather than a night out — that you can afford to find out fast which side of the 57% line someone is on.

Sources:

• For Valentine's Day, 5 facts about single Americans — Pew Research Center, February 2023, from a survey of 6,034 US adults conducted July 5–17, 2022
• Share of US adults living without a romantic partner has ticked down in recent years — Pew Research Center, January 2025