Women, not men, are saying no to dating

(and marriage)

Daniel Cox just shared 2025 polling data showing that 57% of US dating app users were male and just 38% were female.

This data point is just one more indication of a much wider reality that I don’t think a lot of people have incorporated into their worldview. Men are a lot more interested in dating (and marrying) women than women are interested in coupling with men.

Below, allow me to present a few more stats that point in this direction.

In 2020, 61% of single men were looking for a relationship or dates vs 38% of single women, according to Pew. The gender gap was even wider among older singles.

More recent data also shows that men are more interested in dating women than women are interested in dating men:

Why is this?

I wrote about some of the reasons in:

• The real reason so many women have given up on dating

• Are single women just better people?

• Not all men (are equally likely to be single)

I’ve also explored the issue of why marriage rates are down in more depth in:

• Bottom-half marriage is a completely different institution

• Everyone wants a male breadwinner

• Us feminists really did kill marriage

• Marriage is for men

I think dating is down among the same people that marriage rates are down, and for the same reasons.