Large gaps exist, but they are not the typical arrangement
The 7% result sits beside a much larger close-age group. More than one-third of couples were within one year of the same age. A 10-year gap exists, but it is not the most common pattern.
The count comes from Census-recorded opposite-sex couples living in the same household in the 2025 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
The direction of the gap is uneven
Census estimated 5.1 million couples where the male partner was at least ten years older and about 1.3 million where the female partner was at least ten years older.
Those counts describe couples living in the same home. They do not include every dating relationship where partners live apart and do not explain why a particular couple formed.
How common a gap is does not show whether it works
A Census table does not measure satisfaction, power, finances, health, or relationship duration. It therefore cannot settle whether a given age difference is good or bad.
The useful conclusion is narrower: ten-year differences are a minority pattern, and gaps with an older male partner are more common in the measured opposite-sex couples.