Gen Z is pulling back from dating as the price of going out keeps climbing. The average all-in cost of a date in the U.S. has risen to $189, up from $168 a year earlier, and Gen Z now says it spends $205 a date while millennials report $252 per outing.
That shift is drawing attention now because it is not just a mood change; it is showing up in the numbers. Half of Gen Z respondents said dating is getting in the way of their financial goals, and 40% of millennials said the same. The pressure is feeding into a larger rethink of what dating is worth in an era when average menu prices rose 31% between February 2020 and April 2025.
Sarah Meyer warned that the change should not be treated as only a philosophical shift or only a financial one. She said the forces at work are mixed, and that matters because younger adults are not merely spending less — they are changing how they think about being single. A global survey of 14,380 adults found that nearly half of people ages 18 to 34 said being single feels more peaceful than being in a relationship, while 42% said relationships interfere with personal goals, financial stability or self-development.
The pull toward solo life is showing up outside survey answers too. Another 33% said they are actively avoiding dating to protect their mental well-being, and 51% said independence has become more important to them over the past three years. That helps explain why Tinder’s monthly active users in March were down 7% from the same month a year earlier, even as dating apps try to build features aimed at younger users.
There is still a gap between what people say they want and what they can sustain. Pew Research Center data from January 2025 showed that 86% of adults ages 18 to 24 were single and 42% of adults ages 25 to 39 were single, up from a much smaller share of adults ages 25 to 54 who were unpartnered in 1990 and 2019. For now, the cost of a date is not just squeezing budgets. It is making single life look like the safer deal.
Whether that changes depends on two things: if dating becomes cheaper enough to matter, and whether app makers can win back younger users who have decided that solo maxxing is easier on their money and their peace of mind.
