Dating During the Pandemic: Older Daters Less COVID-Careful Than Younger Ones

By Lori Perkins

This will probably translate into an article headlined “GenZ Killed Dating,” but recent survey results released by rent.com show that precautions in dating during the pandemic are much more important to those 18-29 than those in the 45-60 year old age group.

According to the survey, as daters get older, they are less responsible in terms of meeting for the first time compared to Gen Z and younger millennials .In fact, while nearly a quarter (24 %) of respondents between the ages of 18-29 waited longer to meet someone for the first time, that number shrinks to 19% for daters between the ages of 45 and 60.

Additionally, younger generations are also more likely to go on video dates and take precautions for themselves or ask their dates to do the same, such as wearing a mask or waiting for a negative COVID test before meeting in-person. Dating singles between 30-44-years old (the majority of the millennial generation) have the highest rate of video first dates at 18 %.

Pandemic daters are also enjoying more outdoor dating then ever before. When asked about the types of dates that people went on more often during the pandemic, outside dates such as walks and picnics (34 %) and dinner or drinks at an establishment with outside seating (29 % were the most popular options.

And just for the record, Tinder remains the most popular dating source, during the pandemic Tinder had the highest day of swipes ever in late March, with more than 3 billion swipes. In fact, Tinder has reported increasing quarterly paid subscribers counts from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020 with a 15 % revenue increase year-over-year. Bumble is the second most popular dating app.

All dating singles say dating is more difficult during the pandemic (40%), but women felt it more so with a response rate of 45% to the difficulty question, and men coming in at 35%.

For the full survey result, go here: https://www.rent.com/blog/dating-during-the-pandemic-study/