PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia ranked third worst for dating among 20 major U.S. cities in a September 2024 study from FetishFinder. Only Los Angeles and New York scored lower. The city has plenty of single people, but low marks in quality of life, interest in dating, and likelihood of marriage drag down its overall rating.
The numbers tell part of the story. The rest involves money, apps that wear people out, and a gender ratio that works against women looking for men.
The Math Does Not Favor Women
The Philly metro area has 105.5 women for every 100 men. Among cities with populations above 1.5 million, this gap ranks among the largest in the country. Only Atlanta and Baltimore have higher ratios.
Within the city limits, the imbalance becomes starker. The male-to-female ratio sits at 86.8 to 100, with 46.5% of residents male and 53.5% female. Of places with 100,000 or more people, only Gary, Indiana and Birmingham, Alabama have a higher proportion of women.
Philadelphia has the eighth-highest ratio of single women to single men nationwide, with roughly five women for every four men. For heterosexual women, this creates competition by default. Men have more options. Women have fewer.
Age and Availability
The median age in Philadelphia is 35.1 years, with men averaging 33.9 years and women 36.3 years. The largest age group for both sexes falls between 30 and 34, with 73,066 men and 78,055 women. That leaves 4,989 more women than men in what many consider prime dating years.
Pew Research Center data shows that 69% of Americans are married, living with a partner, or in a committed relationship. The remaining group, around 40% of adults, is not married or cohabiting. Of those who are single and looking, 70% say their dating lives are not going well.
When the Standard Options Stop Working
Philadelphia singles who grow tired of apps and mixers sometimes look elsewhere. Some seek sugar daddies, older partners, or relationships that fall outside conventional dating structures. The city's lopsided gender ratio, with 105.5 women for every 100 men, pushes some people toward arrangements they might not have considered otherwise.
These choices often stem from frustration. Forbes Health reported that 78% of dating app users feel exhausted by the process, and 40% cite an inability to find a good connection. When familiar methods produce poor results, people tend to broaden their search criteria or change what they are looking for entirely.
Economic Pressure Makes Everything Harder
Philadelphia's median household income in 2022 was $56,517, well below the national average of $77,000. The poverty rate dropped to 20.3% in 2023, the lowest in more than 20 years, but still high by national standards.
Research from Harvard economist Raj Chetty ranked the Philadelphia region 50 out of 50 for economic mobility among U.S. metropolitan areas. When people struggle to pay rent or save money, dating falls lower on the priority list. Dinners out, trips, and the small expenses of courtship add up fast.
Financial stress also affects how people present themselves. Confidence drops. Anxiety increases. Conversations turn toward money problems instead of shared interests.
Apps Are Exhausting People
According to SSRS, 37% of U.S. adults have used an online dating site or app at some point. More than half of adults aged 18 to 29 have tried them. These platforms were supposed to make finding a partner easier.
They have not.
A 2024 Forbes Health study found that 78% of users feel emotionally, mentally, or physically exhausted by dating apps. Among Gen Z users, 79% reported burnout. The most common reason, cited by 40% of respondents, was the inability to find a good connection.
Hinge CEO Justin McLeod has acknowledged the problem. Maria Avgitidis, CEO of matchmaking company Agape Match, said the number one complaint she hears involves dating app fatigue.
In-Person Events Are Making a Comeback
Speed dating, singles mixers, and group dating parties grew in attendance by 42% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to Eventbrite. These numbers exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
In Philadelphia, Pre-Dating has hosted more than 300 events at venues like Urban Village Brewing in Center City. People want to meet in person again. They want to read body language and hear a voice before deciding if someone is worth a second meeting.
One Philadelphia man named Dave took a different approach. He put up a billboard reading "Dave is single! Want to go on a DATE with DAVE?" He told The Washington Post he was sick of dating apps. The billboard started as a joke among his friends, but it ended up showing his sense of humor and personality in a way no app profile could.
Local Help Exists
Philadelphia has dating coaches and matchmakers who work specifically with local singles. Nada Rifai is one of them. She focuses on helping people prepare themselves for relationships, not on finding the perfect match. Her position is that loving yourself first matters more than anything else.
Rich Juzwiak from Slate's advice column and Kate Catinella from Free Dating Advice Philly also work with people in the area. These resources exist because enough people need them.
What the Divorce Data Shows
U.S. Census Bureau data shows that marriage rates held steady between 2012 and 2022, moving from 16.6 to 16.7. Divorce rates dropped from 9.8 to 7.1 over the same period. Men and women in the Northeast had the lowest rates of divorce in the country.
Diana Elliott, a family demographer at the Census Bureau, explained that divorce rates tend to be higher in the South because marriage rates are also higher there. In the Northeast, first marriages tend to be delayed and marriage rates are lower overall.
Philadelphia fits this pattern. People here may take longer to commit, but the relationships that do form tend to last.
The Bottom Line
Philadelphia has too many women for the number of available men. Household incomes lag behind the national average. Dating apps tire people out without delivering results. The city ranked near the bottom for dating success in a major 2024 study.
None of this means finding a relationship in Philadelphia is impossible. It means the odds are worse than in most places, and the usual methods may not work. Some people turn to matchmakers, speed dating, or alternatives outside conventional structures. Others put up billboards.
The city does not make finding love easy. The data confirms what many single Philadelphians already know.
