Best & Worst States for Singles 

Along with your looks, personality, interests and employment status, your location can influence your odds of finding a romantic partner. Everyone has different priorities when searching for love, but certain places simply make dating easier than others. 

In states with a low cost of living, for instance, your income might stretch a lot further, which means cheaper or more frequent dates. That’s an attractive option considering current inflation levels. If you’re more financially stable, though, you might appreciate a state with more attractions so both you and your potential other half can enjoy unique dates. Dating is also a numbers game, so a state with a higher proportion of single adults automatically improves your prospects.

Which states provide the best conditions for dating? To answer that question, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 29 key indicators of dating-friendliness. Our data set ranges from the share of single adults to the unemployment rate for singles to restaurants per capita. You can also check out WalletHub’s Best & Worst Cities for Singles report to see how your ZIP code affects your chances of finding love.

Nearly half of American adults are single, and dating can be especially hard given that the cost of activities and dining out has skyrocketed in recent years. The best states for singles are those that have strong economies while also providing a wide range of places to host dates. They also tend to have populations with higher concentrations of single people, a relatively even gender balance among singles, and people who are actively interested in dating based on their online searches.”

–        Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst

In-Depth Look at the Best States for Singles

Florida

Florida is the best state for singles in part due to its large variety of attractions. For example, it ranks at the top of the nation for the number of amusement parks, restaurants and music festivals per capita, and is one of the top states for attractions in general. That’s not too surprising for the home of Disney and Universal. And for people who want to stay active, the state has the third-most fitness centers and seventh-most parks per capita.

In addition to having a lot of great places to hold dates, the Sunshine State has a population that’s single and looking for love. People in Florida search Google for the names of the top dating websites (Tinder, Match.com, Eharmony), plus general terms like “dating” and “online dating,” more than residents of most other states.

Finally, Florida has the sixth-best annual job growth rate in the country, so it’s easy to find gainful employment to support yourself and your dating life.

New York

The second-best state for singles is New York, in large part due to the abundance of venues for dating. New York has an extremely high number of attractions and restaurants per capita, and it ranks very high when it comes to the number of bars, movie theaters, amusement parks and  nightlife options per capita. 

New York is also great for singles due to its demographics. It has the fifth-highest share of residents who are single (either never married, widowed, or divorced). It also has the second-best gender balance for singles ages 35-49 and fifth-best for singles ages 20-34. 

On top of that, New York residents’ search history indicates that they are much more interested in dating than people in most other states.

California

California is the third-best state for singles, for much of the same reasons as the other top states. Since it’s such a large, heavily populated and diverse state, it provides endless opportunities for date venues. That includes an especially high number of music festivals, amusement parks, movie theaters, nature parks, and restaurants per capita. California residents also search online for dating-related terms at high rates.

One unique area where Californians stand out is relationship openness, ranking eighth in the nation. People in the Golden State are less likely than people in most states to show signs of “attachment avoidance,” or discomfort with intimacy, based on nationwide psychological surveys. In other words, if you’re looking for commitment, California is a good place to search.

Finally, California also can be a good place for your physical and mental health. It ranks sixth in the nation on the Sharecare Community Well-Being Index, which measures how healthy people are likely to be based on physical, emotional and financial factors, and access to key resources in one’s community.