The State Of Dating Entering 2026

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on some of the dating trends we saw this past year. We’re also discussing what these trends might mean for the dating landscape in 2026. 

The data we’re diving into is from the DatingAdvice.com and Kinsey Institute survey titled The State of US: A National Study on Modern Love & Dating. Drs. Justin Lehmiller and Amanda Gesselman led the study and collected responses from 2,000 single adults in the United States whose demographic data was aligned with U.S. Census Bureau data on sex, age, race/ethnicity, and geographic region. All data were collected in April and May of 2025. Here are some of the key insights from the study:

Lots of People Aren’t Interested in a Relationship 

Singles were asked what kind of relationship they were looking for, if any. Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority of people were looking for a relationship of some kind, with a committed, exclusive relationship taking the lead, as seen in the chart below. Nearly 50% of men were looking for a LTR, as were 43.5% of women.

What surprised us about this chart, however, is the number of people who said they were not currently looking for any kind of relationship: nearly 1 in 5 men and over 1 in 3 women. Also, another thing we see here is that men are looking for all types of relationships more than women, and women are almost twice as likely not to be looking for any kind of relationship compared to men. 

Honesty is the Best Policy 

Honesty tops the list of qualities that people are looking for in a romantic partner. When asked to select the traits that were the most important to them in a partner, both men and women ranked honesty higher than anything else. 

For women, the next-most desired traits were kindness and compassion, followed by communication skills, then dependability and reliability. Physical attraction and sense of humor also made the list, but were rated a bit lower than these other traits. 

For men, the next-most desired qualities were similar, but the biggest difference is that physical attraction ranked in the top three for men, but not women (this trait was rated sixth for women). It seems that while men and women both value having a partner who is honest and kind, men seem to place more of a premium on physical attraction than women do.

Get off the Apps, Get into “The Wild” 

How do singles prefer to meet their partners today? Check out the chart below for the answer.

Overwhelmingly, singles prefer to meet others in-person, sometimes referred to as finding a partner “in the wild.” 

This chart also tells us that dating apps seem to be on the decline when it comes to looking for a partner. In fact, fewer than 20% of men and 12% of women prefer to meet potential partners on dating apps. It may be the case that dating app fatigue is causing people to shy away from technology and turn towards meeting people in real life. 

The Rise of Celibacy

One of the most surprising findings from the study is the number of singles who described themselves as voluntarily celibate, meaning that they are taking a break from sex for a while. Specifically, 21.8% of women and 15.1% of men said they were celibate by choice.

In addition, 27.4% of men and 14.4% of women considered themselves to be involuntarily celibate, meaning they would like to be having sex but cannot find a partner.

Putting these numbers together, nearly half of male singles and one-third of female singles are celibate today.

Most Singles Don’t Want AI in their Dating Lives

We would be remiss not to discuss the use of AI in dating given how much the technology has exploded this past year. Many people have turned to AI for emotional connection and companionship, which is a trend we’ll definitely keep an eye on to see how it develops in the years ahead.

That said, this survey asked singles how open they would be to incorporating AI into their dating lives. It turns out that most singles are generally uninterested in this usage. When asked if they would consider using AI to help with dating, only 7.3% of women said that they would be interested in using it to enhance their sex life. In addition, just 13.8% of women said they would be open to using AI to find a compatible partner, and 12.3% said they would be willing to use it to help build an emotional connection with a partner.

On average, men were more open to using AI than women when it comes to their dating lives. In fact, men were about twice as likely to say they would consider looking to AI for a dating or sex life boost.

However, the fact that most men and women said they weren’t open to using AI for this purpose may reflect the high premium singles place on honesty in a partner: most of us want to be with someone who is genuinely being themselves–not someone who is saying all of the “right” things only because a bot is telling them to.

2026 Dating Trend Predictions 

These findings from the world of dating last year all point to a dating landscape in 2026 where people are focused on choosing their relationships carefully and sparingly.

Increasingly, it seems to be the case that people don’t feel as much pressure to be in a relationship as they used to. And when they do get into relationships, they’re looking for someone who is genuine and authentic.

Also, despite the rise in popularity and usage of AI in general this past year, there seems to be a desire to turn away from technology when it comes to dating and relationships. As we head into the new year, more singles are going to be looking for connections “in the wild.” So if you want to boost your chances of finding a partner, you may need to diversity your approach if you’re someone who primarily uses apps, which may mean attending some local singles’ events, joining a social club, or otherwise getting out in your community where organic connections have an opportunity to arise.

If you have a sex question of your own, record a voicemail at speakpipe.com/sexandpsychology to have it answered on the blog or the podcast. 

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