thefederalist.com
2026-03-14
It's hardly a secret that dating is a mess today. Young adults are not happy with the state of things, and it's certainly not producing the social goods that matter most: marriage and babies. Marriage and fertility rates have dropped by more than half in the last several decades. Society cannot continue without these, and neither happens unless boy meets girl. This is why the dating crisis matters.
A new national survey conducted jointly by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and the Wheatley Institute gives us some much-needed perspective on the dating recession. While providing both good and bad news, their conclusions are mostly hopeful.
Using a nationally representative sample of thousands of unmarried adults aged 22-35, it found that while 60 percent of men and 47 percent of women expressed interest in starting a relationship with someone, a remarkable three-quarters of women (74 percent) and nearly two-thirds of men (64 percent) have never or seldom dated in the last year. This sex distinction notes a concerning shift happening with emerging men and women.
Pew Research Center reported late last year that while girls have traditionally been more likely to say they want to get married one day, boys are now more likely to say this -- and by the sizable margin of 74 to 61 percent. Young men saying this has remained unchanged for the last 30 years, but girls desiring marriage has dropped 22 points. However, the majority of both still want to marry.