Who’s On the Apps?

Dating has transformed in the past few decades. Where just two percent of heterosexual couples met online in 1995, that figure had jumped to 39 percent by 2017. The rise of the dating app has provided ever more people with access to possible connections, with an estimated 60.5 million users in the United States in 2024 alone. This figure has been calculated by Statista Market Insights and takes into consideration both paying and non-paying users. 

Population size is an important factor in determining how many dating app users exist per country. But even so, the populous U.S. stands out for its high user penetration rate. According to Statista Market Insights analysts, the U.S. and France had the highest user penetration rates of this selection of countries at 17.7 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively. They are followed by South Korea at 10.8 percent, Germany at 9 percent, Brazil at 7.8 percent, the United Kingdom at 6.3 percent, China at 5.8 percent and India at just 1.9 percent. 

But where will people meet the most in the future? Survey data from Statista Consumer Insights shows that dating apps are losing popularity among younger users in the U.S., with just 26 percent of online dating service users in 2023 being between the ages of 18-29. That year, Bumble was the most popular dating app in the U.S. It was followed by Tinder, Plenty of Fish and Badoo.