Seventy-five per cent of people using dating apps have never found love in the UK. Millennials are the least in love, and almost six million people across the UK said they have never been in love.
The rise of the dating app is one of the most influential cultural and social phenomena of the past decade – 56% of Brits cannot imagine a world without online dating, and around seven million UK residents are currently registered on dating sites.
Rutger Bruining, CEO and founder of personal biography-writing service StoryTerrace, is sharing love stories and statistics that define a nation of romance chasers, long-lost lovers and swiped-out soul-mates.
StoryTerrace’s exclusive research now reveals the UK’s sentiments towards love and relationships in the age of dating apps:
- Nearly half (47%) of Brits agree that their parents’ generation has far more romantic love stories than their generation.
- Over half (56%) of all Brits believe in ‘the one’.
- One in five (25%) Brits are jealous of the relationships and love stories of their parents’ generations.
- 3 out of 4 Brits (75%) registered with dating apps have never found love.
- 18-34 year olds are the generation least in love – 16% of people in this age group have never been in love, compared with just 6% aged between 35-65.
- 64% of Brits say they are currently in love.
The research has revealed that one in five Brits are jealous of the love stories and relationships of their parents’ generations. Furthermore, despite the fact that people aged 18-34 represent the generation most prolific and connected through dating apps, they are also the generation least ‘in-love’. Sixteen per cent of 18-34 year olds state they have never been in love, compared with just 6% of people aged 35-65.
Over 7 million Brits are now actively using dating apps and websites, yet despite the use of swipe-based connections, the outcome of algorithmic partnering is proving futile for many. New national research from personal biography-writing service, StoryTerrace, has revealed that 3 in 4 (75%) people who use dating apps in the UK have never found love whilst using them, and a recent study published in The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships revealed that compulsive use of dating apps actually makes swipers feel lonelier than they did in the first place. Given these alarming statistics, it’s not hard to see why scores of Brits have become disenchanted with the prospect of modern dating.
Love stories that define a nation
For Valentine’s Day, StoryTerrace offer four case studies, all of whom have documented their stories, or the stories of their family, with StoryTerrace’s professional writers. Their journeys are just some examples of the incredible love stories experienced across generations, from modern love and dating apps, to old-fashioned fairy-tales.
The online-dating success story
Kestell, 27, is one of the few millennials whose experience with dating apps helped break the ice and led to a marriage with the woman he loves:
“I was volunteering in Cambridge, travelling in from Bedfordshire every day and was with some other trainee volunteers. I noticed a girl on the course but never said anything to her – I thought she was gorgeous and I really wanted to get to know her but just didn’t know what to say. I was lucky enough to come across her down the line on one of the dating apps, and it was the push I needed to make contact and break the ice. After chatting through the app, we finally went for a drink one evening after work, and the rest is history. We got married in December and are now happily married in our flat with our cat and dog. Without the help of dating apps, I don’t know if I ever would’ve found myself in this position.”
Unlucky in modern love
Rory, 23, has so far endured very different experiences and has become disillusioned with modern dating. However, he draws on the inspiration of his parents and great-grandparents, who share incredible love stories of their own, and provide Rory with the hope of finding a lasting connection of his own later in life:
“Just like Tom out of Four Weddings and a Funeral, I’d gone about my daily life with the expectation that one day the lightning bolt moment would strike. As an only child from parents who were teenage sweethearts – who have enjoyed a subsequent 38 years together – I naturally assumed that from a young age I’d meet “the one”. However, it seems to me that it’s somehow more difficult than ever to meet people. The dating apps provide more options, but actually creating a connection and trying to stand out from the crowd on digital platforms is not easy and a lot more effort than it’s worth. As someone who is far more relaxed in person, trying to meet people online has proved a nightmare, and I’ve had no connections of real worth built online despite being fairly active across multiple apps.
Nonetheless, my family history gives me hope. Our family has been shaped by my great-grandparents. Simply put, they have become our heroes. Coming from tiny hamlets in the Lake District in the 1910s, they were able to travel the world and were instrumental for providing all that we needed as a family to achieve our dreams. Such is the importance of their 72 year marriage, that my parents decided to arrange their wedding on my great-grandparent’s wedding anniversary. With our family defined by the relationships that brought us together, it gives me hope that the key to happiness does indeed run in the family!”
The love that endured WWII and the battle between East and West
Anneliese was a pretty young girl from East Germany, and Stanley, an English officer in the Horse Guards who ran away to throw himself into the front lines of WWII at just 15 years old. He advanced toward the European front via Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Syria – a Desert Rat. On he went, through Italy to Germany, where he helped to liberate the camp at Belsen. It was there in Germany that he met Anneliese, swimming in the river. They became inseparable, but the Russian occupation soon divided them. Against military orders, he orchestrated Anneliese’s escape across the Berlin Wall – twice! Stanley and Anneliese’s story proves that love is powerful enough to endure all – even being separated by war and two polarising political and social regimes. Happily, the rest is history, according to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Against all odds and despite their separation by the Iron Curtain, they were able to build one of the most storied and incredible relationships ever documented by StoryTerrace.
From Britain to Peru and back again
Just after WWII, Alfie and Isabelle left the UK on the ‘Reina del Pacifico’ for Peru. They left at different times and didn’t know each other but were destined to meet in the country that they would love for the rest of their lives. They were from different missionary groups in Peru, and one day Alfie and his group were invited for a cup of tea to meet Isabelle and hers. She was very impressed that he offered to do the dishes! From then on they were inseparable and Alfie would write daily love letters to her. They fell in love, got married and raised a family together in Peru. Together they did some incredible work, setting up schools, farms and health centres. They later moved back to the UK, where they settled with their children. Isabelle would carry Alfie’s early love letters around with her in her handbag everywhere she went, but as they became damaged, her granddaughter began to file them away, knowing how important they would be to her family’s history. It was through these extensive love letters that Alfie and Isabelle’s family were able to piece together their journey with StoryTerrace.
Rutger Bruining, CEO of biography-writing service StoryTerrace, has built a career on documenting the most incredible life stories of everyday people. Rutger and his network of professional writers have written over a thousand autobiographies, biographies and memoirs, but the unifying factor of almost all of the life stories documented by StoryTerrace is the importance of relationships in people’s lives – beginning with how they met.
“I for one, am extremely interested to see how future generations talk about the role of dating apps in their romantic relationships when StoryTerrace comes to document their lives’ tales in years to come – while there are millions of people using dating apps in today’s society, there are still many who feel embarrassed admitting to it, potentially because of a high failure rate. I believe that, at the end of the next decade, we are likely to see people talking about how dating apps were a significant part of their journey in meeting their partner, and what was once taboo or uncomfortable will become part of the fabric of millions of new relationships and marriages,” he said.