VERIFIED BRIEFINGUPDATED JUL 21, 20264 MIN READBY POOL REPORT RESEARCH DESK

Dating app usage by age

See dating app usage by age in the United States and why ever-use, recent-use, and platform-use percentages are not interchangeable.

THE SHORT ANSWER

Pew’s 2022 survey found ever-use rates of 53% for adults under 30, 37% for ages 30–49, 20% for ages 50–64, and 13% for ages 65 and older.

53%: under 30
37%: ages 30–49
13%: ages 65 and older

The decline by age is substantial

Ever-use among adults under 30 was about four times the rate among adults 65 and older. The 30–49 group sat between those endpoints, while one in five adults 50–64 reported having tried online dating.

The values come from one survey using one question. That consistency makes the age comparison more defensible than combining platform marketing numbers from different years.

Tinder’s age curve is steeper

Among people who had ever used online dating, 79% of users under 30 said they had used Tinder. That figure was 44% among users ages 30–49 and lower among older users.

This denominator is online-dating users, not all adults in the age group. Pew separately reported Tinder use as 14% of all U.S. adults.

Age changes the meaning of a pool

A national population estimate includes people who have never used an app. An app-use estimate includes former users. Neither is the same as the number of recently active, locally reachable profiles.

For a standards calculation, start with age and location from a population source, then label app participation as a separate unknown unless current platform data are available.

SOURCE RECEIPTS

Open the evidence.

These links go to the publisher—not a secondhand statistic roundup.

01
Pew Research Center
From Looking for Love to Swiping the Field
Nationally representative survey of 6,034 U.S. adults, fielded July 5–17, 2022, with definitions and subgroup tables.
Open source ↗

COMMON FOLLOW-UPS

Are these numbers current dating-app user counts?

No. They are survey estimates from Pew’s July 2022 fieldwork, published in 2023. They measure reported experience among U.S. adults, not live platform accounts or monthly active users.

What percentage of people under 30 use dating apps?

Pew found 53% had ever used one and about a quarter had used one in the previous year, based on July 2022 responses.

Do older adults use online dating?

Yes. Pew reported ever-use among 20% of adults ages 50–64 and 13% of adults 65 and older.