The answer refers to a current partner
Respondents were counted as partnered if they were married, living with a partner, or in a committed romantic relationship. The question asks how they met that person, not whether they had ever gone on an app-arranged date.
This makes the result useful for relationship formation but narrower than a general measure of online dating success.
Younger and LGB couples report online meetings more often
The share rose to 20% among partnered adults under 30. Pew also reported that about a quarter of partnered lesbian, gay or bisexual adults met their current partner through online dating.
These subgroup estimates should not be converted into a claim about every recent marriage or every couple formed in a particular year.
A second dataset helps explain the trend
Stanford’s How Couples Meet and Stay Together project follows a nationally representative panel and publishes its documentation and public-use files. It is designed to study meeting pathways and relationship outcomes over time.
Pew supplies a clear headline estimate; HCMST offers a deeper research dataset. Using both is stronger than repeating an app company’s marketing claim.