Most college students do not use dating apps. An Axios survey found 79% of them have no active profiles on platforms like Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge. This statistic runs counter to assumptions about how young people meet romantic partners. The reality on campuses looks different from what headlines suggest.
Students still meet at parties, through mutual friends, and in class. A 7,100-person survey fielded in January 2025 found that 77% of people aged 18 to 29 met their partner offline. The methods remain familiar even as the tools have changed.
What has changed is the way students think about commitment, labels, and what they want from another person. These shifts shape how relationships form, stall, or end before they begin.
The App Problem
Dating apps have a retention issue among university students. More than half of Gen Z users report feeling burned out often or always while swiping, according to a July 2025 Forbes Health survey. A 2024 survey from the same source found 79% of Gen Z users feel some degree of fatigue with these platforms.
The numbers behind the apps explain part of this exhaustion. On Tinder, men make up 76% to 78% of users. Hinge has 64% male users. Bumble runs closer to balanced at 60% men and 40% women. Female users see a 10% match rate while males hover around 0.6%. For many men, the experience involves sending dozens of messages that go nowhere.
Hinge has grown despite the broader decline. Its first-quarter revenue in 2025 increased 23% compared to the previous year. Bumble dropped nearly 8% and Tinder fell 3%. Students who do use apps appear to favor platforms that emphasize profiles and prompts over quick swiping.
Relationships Without a Single Definition
University students in 2025 hold varied ideas about what a relationship should look like. Some pursue long-term commitment, while others prefer situationships or sugar daddy relationships that fall outside conventional expectations. YouGov data shows half of 18 to 34-year-olds have been in a situationship, suggesting that flexibility in romantic arrangements has become common among younger adults.
The reasons behind these choices often tie to timing and circumstance. Academic demands, personal goals, and risk aversion all factor into how students approach dating. For many, avoiding labels allows them to maintain connections without added pressure during a period of rapid change.
Emotional Hesitation on First Dates
Hinge’s 2025 Gen Z D.A.T.E. Report surveyed approximately 30,000 users worldwide. One finding stood out: 84% of Gen Z daters want new ways to build emotional closeness. They also struggle to do it.
Gen Z daters are 36% more hesitant than millennials to begin a deep conversation on a first date. The reasons differ by gender. Among heterosexual Gen Z women, 49% said they wait for the other person to start a meaningful conversation. Only 17% of heterosexual Gen Z men said the same.
Men face their own barriers. The report found 48% of Gen Z men avoid emotional intimacy early on because they worry about appearing too intense. Fear of being perceived as overbearing keeps many from asking the questions that could lead somewhere real.
Gender and Commitment
Some students believe men are less likely to commit and more likely to be unfaithful. Others argue that both men and women avoid commitment for similar reasons. A comfortable arrangement feels like enough. The risk of losing it outweighs the potential gain of making things official.
Bumble’s 2025 research involving over 40,000 members found 64% of women respondents are getting clear about what they want and refusing to settle. At the same time, 72% of Bumble users globally said they want to find a long-term partner within the next year. The desire for commitment exists alongside reluctance to pursue it.
Women are also turning to male friends for help with dating. Among female respondents, 22% now ask their male friends to vet potential dates. A majority, 54%, rely on men in their lives to offer honest insight into how other men behave.
Queer Students and Dating Norms
Hinge surveyed 14,000 LGBTQIA+ and heterosexual daters and found that queer Gen Z users date differently. They are 21% more likely than millennials to date across gender expressions and 39% more likely to reconsider their sexuality label after an unexpected connection.
Feeld, a platform designed for open-minded dating, saw an 89% increase in Gen Z users joining over the past year. These numbers point to a willingness among some students to approach identity and attraction with less rigidity than previous generations.
AI as a Dating Tool
Younger Gen Z daters, those aged 18 to 22, show openness to using AI for dating help. About 60% said they would consider it as a second opinion. This does not mean they want AI to do the work for them. Gen Z users are more uncomfortable than older generations with using AI to write profile prompts, respond to messages, or alter photos.
The interest appears limited to advice, not automation. Students want guidance on how to present themselves or interpret a message. They do not want a chatbot to replace their voice.
Stages of a Relationship Stay the Same
A study comparing young adults in 2012 and 2022 found that college students describe relationship stages in similar ways. Flirtation, dating, commitment. The sequence has not changed much.
One difference appeared: more students now include cohabitation as part of a typical relationship path. Marriage as the expected endpoint has lost some ground. Living together has become a step that students anticipate before, or instead of, a formal ceremony.
About 27% of couples who married in 2025 met through an app. Among those, Hinge accounted for 36% of matches, and Tinder followed with 25%. Apps lead to marriage for some. For most students, they remain one option among many.
What Students Actually Do
Parties remain the primary meeting place. Hookups happen. Some turn into relationships, most do not. The mechanics of meeting someone have not been replaced by technology. They have been supplemented by it.
Students who want commitment often find it through friends and social circles. Those who prefer something undefined keep their options open. Both paths coexist on the same campuses, sometimes in the same person, depending on the semester.
