1 in 6 Marriages Met Online

By Alex in Blogs & Internet on Apr 20, 2010 at 5:10 pm

I met my wife the old-fashioned way (in college) but I personally know a few people who met their significant others through online dating.

It seems like more and more people met each other through the web. And now, there’s hard number to support this anecdotal evidence.

A study of more than 11,000 people by the online dating website Match.com and research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey showed that 1 out of 6 marriages last year are between people who met through an online dating site. That’s more than twice the number of people who met at bars, clubs, and other social events combined! If you count committed relationships, the number jumps even higher to 1 out of 5.

The following details the way people have met their spouse over the last three years:

1) Through Work/School 36%
2) Through Friend/Family Member 26%
3) Via Online Dating Site 17%
4) Through Bars/Clubs/Other Social Events 11%
5) Other 7%
6) Through Church/Place of Worship 4%

“The world has changed,” said Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com. “We get married older, we work longer hours, we move around more, we’re generally busier. These changes have put pressure on the way we traditionally have met our significant others. Luckily, with these changes has come an increasing openness to doing new things. Online dating has grown so much in part as a response to these societal changes, having become the third most important way we meet our significant others, even though it didn’t even exist 15 years ago.”

The study: Link [PDF] – Thanks Kendyl Wright! (Photo: Shutterstock)


Email This Post
Tweet This Post 
Share This Post on Facebook

Tags: , , ,

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

  1. meg
    Apr 20th, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    What does it count as if we went to the same school (but never met on our own), got introduced by a mutual friend (but didn’t see each other in person again for over a year), and got to know each other online in the intervening year?

  2. MidwestMedic
    Apr 20th, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    I suspect this survey is fundamentally flawed due to it using an online survey to study if people met online. this limits it’s source to those who are obviously online already. though that is a large amount, it is not a true representative of the general population. Still a significant number, but not what they are trying to make it out to be. I take this as a marketing survey more than a scientific survey.

  3. lir
    Apr 20th, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    I’ve met two of my significant others online (through Myspace, sadly enough), and though one was a creep, the other and I have been happily dating for two years.

  4. Theophrastus
    Apr 21st, 2010 at 12:45 am

    Pay sites like Match.com and eHarmony may be stacked against the users, according to an article on the OKCupid (a free dating site) blog. http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2010/04/07/why-you-should-never-pay- for-online-dating/

  5. Twist
    Apr 21st, 2010 at 5:14 am

    I met my partner at an interview to become a Student Ambassador in high school. We ended up going to Europe together, and 3 years later we ended up in a relationship. I think that’s a way cooler story than the internet.

  6. Miss Cellania
    Apr 21st, 2010 at 5:53 am

    I had to go look because I wondered what they defined as a “committed relationship”. Is that something MORE than marriage, like married people who don’t plan to get a divorce? Or is it people who say they are committed, but not quite enough to get married?

    But it doesn’t really define the term, except to say a “new committed relationship”, which probably means they are dating exclusively.

  7. snarkygurl
    Apr 21st, 2010 at 6:39 am

    My husband and I met eleven years ago using a free trial of Match.com. We started hanging out together, then dated, and four and a half years later got married. It’s just another way to meet people, and I’ve made some good friends through the internet since then.

  8. Tempscire
    Apr 21st, 2010 at 8:28 am

    “[1-in-6] That’s more than twice the number of people who met at bars, clubs, and other social events combined!”

    followed by

    “3) Via Online Dating Site 17%
    4) Through Bars/Clubs/Other Social Events 11%”

    17 > (11*2)? Am I missing something?

  9. gk
    Apr 21st, 2010 at 9:13 am

    Those numbers are highly suspect considering both the method and sponsor of the study.

  10. Katiekatiekatie
    Apr 22nd, 2010 at 2:35 pm

    Unfortunate that it doesn’t count people who met through non-dating online sources. Closing in on my 1 year anniversary after meeting my husband while nerding it up on MMOs 10 years ago. :)

  11. Mariya
    Jun 17th, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    Great post! You know, I personally have experienced something like this even without Match.com researches. I met my husband online and I helped few friends of mine to find their destinies online. Everyone is happy!


Keep track of the comments with Comment RSS

Don't Miss: New Stuff | Bestsellers | The Cute Store
                   Funny T-Shirts

Need a gift? Get unforgettable gifts for:
Geeks | Pranksters | Kids | Hipsters | Shutterbugs
Lijit Search
Old school? Bookmark us! RSS Feed Twitter Facebook Page