Swipe Right for Love

Nine in 10 Tinder and Grindr users now in a relationship want to marry, finds new poll

Read our research note here and press release here

Contrary to the image of Tinder and Grinder app users only looking for casual short term “hook ups”, a new poll finds that nine in 10, who say they are in a relationship, want to marry.

The survey, carried out by One Poll for the Marriage Foundation, asked 2,000 young unmarried adults aged 18-30 about their attitudes towards tying the knot and their relationship status.

Of those who said they were in a relationship and had met using a ‘casual dating app’ such as Tinder and Grindr, nine in 10, (89 per cent) said they wanted to marry and four in five (80 per cent) expected to marry “at some point”. This compared with 84 per cent and 77 per cent respectively among those who met through long-term dating apps.

Harry Benson, Marriage Foundation’s Research Director commented: “These counterintuitive results (casual dating apps marginally out-performing long-term relationship apps) puts a sword to the lie that young people have fallen out of love with the idea of marrying – Quite the contrary. As this survey finds those aged 18-30 overwhelmingly believe in and support the institution of marriage, regardless of whether they are looking for reliable love using relationship apps like e-harmony and bumble, or hook up sites like Tinder and Grindr.

“It also suggests that young people are perhaps less promiscuous than many of us imagine, with many looking for reliable love in the form of a stable and long-term relationship, just like everybody else.”

The survey found that meeting online remains the number one way young couples meet. Of the 955 men and women in the survey who reported being in a relationship, three in 10 (29 per cent) said they met online, one in four (24 per cent) met in a ‘domestic’ setting and one in five (21 per cent) met through ‘educational’ settings – school, college or university. A further 15 per cent met in a bar or other social setting and 11 per cent met through work.

 

Downloads

Here you can download the Research Briefing Paper as a PDF and the Press Release where it is available.

Media Links

Sunday Express – Love me Tinder … secret to true romance (Print headline) Want to find the person you want to marry? Then use a one night stand dating app (Online headline)

Sunday Times – Young tinder users swipe right on idea of marriage (not online)

Sign up for updates