Relationships

The word cougar in the dating world describes a female who usually in her forties or fifties (sometimes older) who is looking for someone who is 10, 20, even 30 years younger than them. While still used as a putdown more times than not, these type of relationships are becoming more main stream. Everyone knows of the famous couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher who got married over 3 years ago. A lot of media pegged her as a cougar when she was seen dating Ashton who is 15 years younger. A more recent case is Hulk Hogan's wife, Linda. She has been seen around LA this summer with Charlie Hill, who is 19 years old. Linda is reported to be 49, that is thirty year difference. Of course, the media hasn't been kind to these two.

It is far more accepted for woman to date men 5 to 10 years younger than them now days than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Once you get past the 10 year mark the word cougar starts to get thrown around. Of course men who date woman much younger than them are seen as sugar daddies or men who are suffering a midlife crisis. Still, men have it easier perception wise but, as more celebrity woman date much younger men the perception of the cougar will change for the better as the general public gets use to the idea.

Last year it was San Francisco, this year it is Atlanta which gained the number 1 spot in Forbes annual top 40 cities in America for Singles to live. The 40 largest cities in the United States are ranked in 7 different categories. This includes, nightlife, online dating activity, job growth, number of singles, culture, cost of living alone and coolness. All cities where ranked in the 7 categories. Then all categories, which were given equal weight, where totalled for the cities final ranking. The top 5 cities for singles are (according to Forbes):

1. Atlanta
2. San Francisco
3. Dallas
4. Minneapolis
5. Washington D.C.

As a city, Atlanta offers an above average ranking in almost all 7 categories with Job Growth as a stand out in which they were ranked number 4 out of 40. Online Dating activity was their worse category with a ranking of 24. Out of a population of over 4 million, 26.8 percent of adults are single which gave them a rank of 14. San Francisco earned the top spot for the number of singles category with 30 percent of their adult population being single.

According to Forbes methodology on how each of the 7 categories are used to rank a city, Match.com was used to determine the online dating activity. This was based on the number of active profiles in each city. To figure out the coolest city, Harris Interactive conducted a poll that asked U.S. adults to name the city from among the 40 selected.

Check out Forbes Special Report for singles.

Related Story: Forbes Magazine Best Cities for Singles

I saw some interesting statistics on a website that mentions:

According to the US Census, 40% of American adults patronize the services of online dating sites resulting in about 120,000 marriages annually.

I searched the U.S. Census Bureau website for awhile and couldn't find the information mentioned in the quote. If this statistic is true, it would mean that eHarmony is responsible for a third of all marriages that resulted from online dating. According to eHarmony they are responsible for on average 118 marriages a day or 43,000 in one year, in the United States (see stats).

I am suspect of the number of total marriages resulting from online dating as mentioned in the quote above since, other facts didn't ring true in the article. As example, it also mentions:

China too expects dating patrons to grow in huge numbers. With 64 million singles residing in the nation, the market is expected to double in the present year.

The United States has a population of roughly 300 million with over 90 million singles. Canada has a population of 30 million with a third being single. This is the same ratio as the United States. China has a population of over 1.3 billion. I would expect them to have more that 64 million singles, a lot more! If the same ratio holds true then you would expect to see over 400 million singles.

For the full article called Internet Dating – The Good, Bad and Ugly, visit MedIndia.com. See our eHarmony Review for more information on this dating service.

In a poll that appears to be from eHarmony (though it is reported on a UK website) found that 19% of married couples surveyed met online. The poll was conducted in 2006 and 2007 and surveyed 10,000 married couples. 17% of these couples met at work with the same percentage meeting through friends. In a similar poll conducted in 2004 and 2005, of the 5000 married couples surveyed, 14% met online, with 20% meeting at work and 17 percent through friends.

In the 2006-2007 poll if you looked at the age group 45-54 for couples, the result showed 31% met online. In the 20 to 44 age range this is much lower at only 18% of couples met online.

I was surprised by the poll results and I would have expected the numbers regarding married couples meeting online to be slightly lower than it was. I wonder what this percentage would be for couples who are not married yet? If this was an online poll (it is not mentioned if it is or not) then I would also expect the numbers of married couples who met online to be higher since the couples who are polled are people who are tech savvy and have been online.

These poll numbers are also backed up by some eHarmony statistics we reviewed a little while ago (see story). If you look at the comments section you will note it is calculated that eHarmony has a 32% to 40% success rate. A success is measured by if a couple who met on eHarmony actually got married.

Go to Mirror.co.uk News for the full story or check out our review of eHarmony for more information on this dating service.

Update - August 16, 2008

I found another news item regarding this survey which gave me a few more facts. It was an online survey and it was done by Harris Interactive.

An independent film called Single: a documentary film was released recently which looks at the lives at some of the 100 million Americans who are single. While I haven't seen the movie, there is a trailer available. The trailer runs over 4 minutes and it does give a good impression of what the film is about.

The website Tin Ape, did a review of this film in which they summarized:

Single delves into a plethora of issues about being single in America, from the role of the burgeoning independence of women to the social stigma of men, all backed up by the candid testimonies of single 30 somethings and knowledgeable sociologists.

Tin Ape also mentions:

The film also does not attempt to solve the “problem” of being single.

This is a different spin from most of the other media available on singles found on the internet. Most similar type of videos or articles tend to try and help the "single" become a "couple" which inadvertently casts a negative light on being single. The movie is available for purchase on their website for $14.95 US.

See the full film review at Tin Ape and the website for the actual movie can be found here.

The Unofficial eHarmony Blog got a peek at eHarmony’s June advertiser kit which had an interesting promotional page. On it eHarmony stated they receive 3.2 to 3.5 million unique visitors with 350 - 500 million page views per month. With this traffic, they receive 12 - 15 thousand new registrants per day. From this, 1 in 20 site visitors will subscribe to eHarmony and these memberships refresh every 3 to 4 months.

From the information above, I calculated that eHarmony receives between 600 – 750 in new paid members a day or 219,000 – 273,750 paid members a year. This means at any one time on eHarmony there are between 72,000 and 90,000 paid members (if you take the 4 month member average refresh rate).

I’ll have to update my Online Dating Statistics & Facts page with this new information. For a more detail view of eHarmony, try reading our review.