Eighty-one percent of daters say dating would be easier if they just had more money. That is not a guess or a vibe pulled from a group chat — it is what LendingTree found when it surveyed 2,050 U.S. adults about how inflation has changed the way they look for love. You have probably felt this yourself: chemistry is supposed to be the whole point, but lately your bank balance seems to have a vote too.
What LendingTree’s Own Numbers Actually Show
LendingTree commissioned QuestionPro to survey adults ages 18 to 78 in early August 2024, and the results read less like a lifestyle trend piece and more like a budget spreadsheet. Sixty-five percent of active daters told LendingTree that inflation has directly affected their dating habits. Twenty-three percent said they are actively trying to spend less per date, and 21% said they are simply going on fewer dates than they otherwise would. None of that is abstract belt-tightening — it is people quietly opting out of a second dinner or a third coffee because the math stopped working.
The money pressure does not stop once two people are actually a couple, either. LendingTree found that 33% of daters have turned down a date they wanted to go on purely because of the cost, and 59% of active daters say they typically spend somewhere between $50 and $199 on a first date alone. Fourteen percent have gone into debt over dating, carrying an average balance of $711, and men are more than twice as likely as women to end up owing money over it — 21% versus 9%.
The “More Money Would Fix This” Belief Keeps Growing
Here is the part that should actually alarm you: this feeling is intensifying, not leveling off. Back in 2022, LendingTree ran a similar survey of 1,578 consumers and found that 77% of daters believed dating would be easier with more money, with 19% cutting back on dates because of inflation. Two years later, that “more money would fix this” number climbed to 81%, and the share going on fewer dates rose to 21%. That is not a one-time spike tied to a single bad news cycle. It is a trend line moving in one direction.
Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst, put it plainly when discussing the 2024 findings: “If people are dating less, that has a massive impact on society.” He is not being dramatic. When a meaningful share of single adults quietly decide dating costs more than it is worth right now, that ripples outward into fewer relationships forming at all, not just fewer dinners getting booked.
It’s Not Just About Cost Per Date Anymore
This is where the picture gets bigger than any single survey. A separate, nationally representative study of 5,275 unmarried adults ages 22 to 35, published by the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University and the Institute for Family Studies in its State of Our Unions 2026 report, found that only 30% of young adults are actively dating at all right now. When researchers asked what was standing in the way, 52% pointed to insufficient money as the single biggest barrier — 58% of men and 46% of women. Nearly three-quarters agreed that money and finances are a major obstacle to getting married someday, too.
Put those two studies side by side and you get a fuller, more uncomfortable picture than either one tells on its own. It is not only that dates themselves feel more expensive. It is that a real share of singles are stepping back from dating as an activity altogether, and money is the reason they name first.
What This Actually Means for How You Date
None of this means chemistry stopped mattering — it just means it now has to compete with a line item. The good news buried in LendingTree’s data is that most daters are adaptable about it: 67% say they would not mind a completely cost-free date, and plenty of the people cutting back are simply choosing walks, coffee, or at-home nights over $150 dinners rather than giving up on dating altogether. If you have been quietly steering your own dates toward cheaper options, or feeling a little embarrassed admitting that a nice restaurant is out of reach right now, the numbers say you are doing exactly what most of your fellow daters are doing too.
The more useful takeaway might be permission rather than data. If 81% of people think dating would be easier with more money, saying so out loud to a date early on is not a red flag — it is just honesty about a shared reality. Being upfront about a budget, suggesting a lower-key second date, or asking someone what they actually enjoy instead of defaulting to an expensive dinner are not compromises on romance. They are how dating is actually working for most people right now, whether the culture has caught up to that or not.
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