Eighty-six percent of unmarried young Americans say they expect to get married someday, but new survey data shows barely a third of them are doing anything about it right now. The State of Our Unions 2026: The Dating Recession report, published by the Wheatley Institute and the Institute for Family Studies, found only 31% of unmarried 22- to 35-year-olds date at least once a month.
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The report draws on the 2025 National Dating Landscape Survey of 5,275 unmarried young adults, released Feb. 10, 2026. Of the 86% who expect to marry, 61% said they definitely expect to, 25% said maybe or that they don’t know, and just 14% said they do not expect to marry at all.
The dating gap splits sharply by gender. Thirty-six percent of men said they date regularly, compared with 26% of women, and the survey found 74% of women and 64% of men had gone on few or no dates at all in the past year.
Money and confidence, not a lack of interest in marriage, appear to be what’s keeping people off the dating market in the first place. Fifty-two percent cited a lack of money as their biggest dating barrier, 49% pointed to low confidence, 48% cited bad past experiences, and 45% said a previous breakup left them reluctant to try again. Only 33% said they feel confident in their own dating skills, and just 37% said they trust their own judgment when choosing who to date.
The report drew wide pickup among national outlets, several of which framed it as evidence of a distinct “dating recession” rather than a simple lack of interest in commitment. Researchers at BYU’s Wheatley Institute and the Institute for Family Studies, who co-authored the report, argue the disconnect stems less from cold feet about marriage itself and more from young adults lacking the confidence, money and practical dating opportunities that would get them there.
Key Points
- 86% of unmarried 22-35-year-olds expect to marry eventually
- Only 31% are dating at least once a month
- 52% cite lack of money as their top barrier to dating
The report’s authors put it plainly: “Young adults need effective road maps that guide them to and through the dating experiences that will connect their marital expectations to actual unions.” The gap suggests the obstacle to marriage for this generation isn’t the goal itself, but the years of dating that are supposed to lead there.
