Guess who’s back, back again?
It’s that time of year again when we report all the dating statistics you’re dying to hear – the good, the bad, and the downright funny. This information was gathered over the last year of app usage and survey results from the Mutual community in December 2023.
The sharing of this year’s data was highly anticipated and requested, so we won’t waste any more time building up to it. Let’s just dive right in!
Mutual 🤝 Safety
Over 95% of people reported that they feel safe using Mutual. We work hard to create an environment where you can safely connect, chat, and date. We’re grateful for our outstanding community members who help us to keep it that way!
This year, we brought you the safest version of Mutual ever! We require 100% of Mutual profiles to be verified. That means that when you match with someone on Mutual, our team has confirmed that they are really who they say they are. We also use AI to find and prevent people from using the app that shouldn’t be.
Want to learn more about what we’re doing to keep you safe or ways you can date worry-free? Check out our Safety Center.
As Mutual continues to grow, the odds remain even 👫🏻
Thousands of new Mutual profiles are created every week! And we continue to see growth among both males and females. Just like we reported last year, our user base is pretty close to a 50/50 split at 50.5% male and 49.5% female. Compare that to Tinder with a 75% male, 25% female split, or Hinge with a 64% male, 36% female split, and your chances of finding a match are much better on Mutual.
Mutual helps you make connections around the world 🌎
It makes sense that we would have a worldwide app for members of a worldwide church, right? It would also make sense for the number of Mutual members to increase around the geographical areas where you find more members of the church, which is exactly what we found.
The top countries where new Mutual accounts were created in 2023 were the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and the Philippines.
The top regions for new accounts were Utah (USA), Idaho (USA), Arizona (USA), Sao Paolo (Brazil), California (USA), Texas (USA), Washington (USA), Nevada (USA), Lima (Peru), and Colorado (USA).
You guys rock! 🪨
We did a Mutual-wide rock paper scissors competition! If you picked rock, you’re within the 52% of winners on Mutual. Rock on. 🤘
There’s space for everyone 💞
Don’t worry about not being able to find someone like you on Mutual. There’s bound to be someone who likes the things that you like! We have all sorts of interest tags on Mutual, but the most popular ones are Family, Adventure, Music, Movies, Food, Camping, Beach, Animals, Fitness, and Outdoors.
We pulled the data on the most commonly used filters. This might look a little bit different than you would expect because there are some things you’re required to input, like distance, for example, so we didn’t include those things in this data.
The most popular filter was church activity, followed by temple recommend, languages, height, and relationship goals.
For those wondering about height, the average height for females on Mutual is 5’5”, and the average height for males on Mutual is 6’… yeah. We’ll believe that when we see it. 👀
Time to look for love 📅
Curious to know when other people are most likely to be online at the same time as you? The top swiping day of 2023 was January 1, 2023 – an unofficial holiday known as Dating Sunday because the first Sunday of the year is typically the busiest for most dating apps! With so many people adding “find love” to their New Year’s Resolutions, it’s no surprise that people start the year off strong, looking for love.
Dating Sunday was followed by October 1st as the next highest swiping day, which coincides with the Sunday sessions of General Conference. Could it be that once you get to that third or fourth session of conference, you’re bored and trying to distract yourself? Possibly. Or maybe it’s around this time that you’ve realized that the holidays are around the corner, and you don’t want to face them alone. But we like to tell ourselves that while you were watching General Conference, the spirit moved you to look for love, and we love that for you. 😉
Messages Matter 💌
63% of girls said that guys should send the first message, while 67% of guys said that whoever matched last should send the first message. Guys, this means that if you get a notification that you matched with a girl and you’re waiting for her to message you first, there’s a 63% chance that she’s waiting for you to message first. And vice versa, girls, if you swipe up and get that “it’s mutual” notification after swiping up, and you’re expecting him to send you a message, there’s a 67% chance that he’s waiting around for you to message first instead.
What does this mean? It means everyone needs to step up their game and just send a message! I mean, come on! What’s the worst thing that could happen: you get ghosted? Ooooooh, scary. 🙄
The good news is that we saw a 7.4% increase in messages sent per person from 2022 to 2023, which means that more and more messages are being sent on Mutual every day!
Ew, David! 💁🏼♀️
While there’s lots of diversity to be found on Mutual, you’re bound to see more than one Emily or David. Emily was the top female first name on Mutual in 2023, and David was the top male first name in 2023. (There were surprisingly very few McKinzieleighs. I know, we’re shocked too.)
It’s the features for you 📱
We’re always looking for ways to make Mutual better and improve your dating experience. One of the ways we do that is with our See Who Likes Me feature, which was your top favorite feature in 2023! See Who Likes Me lets you see people who have already swiped up on you, so you get a guaranteed match if you swipe up on them, too.
We’re getting Speed Dating ready to launch, but while we’re working on that, you might like to know that the most anticipated feature for 2024 is the Browse By Interest feature, which means you’d be able to review others’ profiles based on their interest tags. That way, if you definitely ONLY want a gym bro or an outdoorsy girl, you’re guaranteed to find them.
Speaking of features, over 71% of Mutual members said they would be more likely to swipe up on you if they saw that you sent them a Note. Don’t believe us? Read this story about Tyler and Randi: The Note That Changed Everything.
We’ll keep you updated on our new features this year and let you know as things are released. If you have any other suggestions or ideas, leave them for us here!
Wait for it! ✋
How soon is too soon to go in for that first kiss? Well, if you’re thinking you might get some lip action on a first date, think again. 93% of people on Mutual say that you should wait until at least the 2nd date to kiss, if not longer!
We also asked how long you should date before getting married. The majority of respondents said 6-12 months. However, it’s not clear whether this includes an engagement or not. But either way, if you’ve known someone for two days and you take them outside the temple and tell them that you’ve received revelation that you’re supposed to get married, chances are that they’ll be more than skeptical. (Not saying you couldn’t receive that revelation. I mean, it does happen. But maybe wait to get to know each other more before sharing that information.)
Bro Code or No Code? 🤔
Guys were more likely than girls to respond “yes” when asked if they would swipe up on someone their friend had previously gone on a date with. 75% of guys said they would swipe up on someone even if their friend had previously gone on a date with them, while only 54% of girls said the same.
Keep in mind that a swipe-up is not the same as a date, and a date is not the same as a relationship, so there’s some debate as to whether a swipe-up violates the bro code. What do you think?
Red Flags 🚩and Green Flags ✅
The number one green flag was the same across the board for both genders and all ages: having multiple pictures from different angles. Does this mean people are shallow and only care about looks? Maybe. But we like to think that it means people want to know you’re real. If you can show that you have multiple pictures in various locations, doing different activities, etc., then that gives more evidence that you’re both a real person and that you’re here to date for real. Not just for a hookup or for kicks and giggles.
As for red flags, the results were very different from men vs. women.
34% of men said that the number one red flag is when a woman only has group pictures on her profile, while 38% of women said the number one red flag is when a man has an incomplete bio.
Now, before you go losing your minds about men only caring about pictures and what you look like, note that 25% percent of men said that the number one flag is an incomplete bio, and 23% of women said that the number one flag is only group pictures. So, regardless of your gender, it’s essential to have both a quality bio and quality pictures in your profile to make the best impression!
Hopeful for 2024 🫶✨
When we asked you for one word to describe your dating expectations for 2024, your answers ranged from “bleak” and “low” to “fun” and “exciting” or even “temple” or “marriage.” But one word repeated itself over and over in your answers, and that was “hopeful,” and honestly, we love that for you.
We’re hopeful, too! We think this year could be your best dating year yet, and even though it will inevitably have ups and downs, we’ll be here to help you through it all. We got you, bestie.
