Is Love Ageless? TikTok Trends and New Data Say Yes
Age-gap relationships have blown up TikTok with hashtags #agegap and #agegapcouple amassing 267K and 111K posts respectively.
Cher, 77, opened up about a boyfriend 40 years younger than her, while Johnny Depp, 61, has been spotted with a 28-year-old model just a few days ago.
And so researchers and dating experts at the dating app Flirtini decided to find out: are these examples of a common trend — or outliers? They collated data on 1 million anonymized ‘likes’ from their app users to explore age disparity in relationships — here is what they found.
Gen Z: While Gen Z males are the most likely to want to date within their age bracket, women are divided between dating within their age group (26%) and preferring older men (38%);
Millennials: 24% of Millennial males prefer partners of their age, however, the majority would date younger ones, with 32% preferring even 10+ younger. Women of this generation lean the other way, with a 51% preference for older partners;
Gen X: While 86% of Gen X men’s likes go to Millennial or Gen Z women, Gen X women are much more open-minded on relationship dynamics, with a 46%-to-36% split between younger and older profiles;
Boomers: 95% of all Boomers’ likes go to profiles at least ten years younger than them.
Anastasiya Pochotna, a dating expert at the Flirtini dating app, commented:
“Our exclusive data has certainly revealed some intriguing dating trends when it comes to age gaps. But what is really going on in the minds of our romance-seekers? It would be easy to say that male daters are drawn to the youthful looks of younger women, but could there be other factors at play? Maybe Gen X and millennial men are reluctant to date women who already have children. As for the other side of things, it seems that Gen Z women are looking for a bit of extra maturity when it comes to finding a partner. But Gen X women have changed their minds completely and are now looking for a bit more fun with a younger man.”