New national data from Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute suggest that, despite talk of marriage’s decline, single adults in the United States are more likely to say they want to marry someday than they were a decade and a half ago, even as they take longer to get there and grow more open to relationships across religious lines.
The findings come from the 15th annual Singles in America study, conducted by researchers at the Kinsey Institute in partnership with Match and released in September 2026 as what the institute describes as “the nation’s most comprehensive and longest-running annual study of single adults.” In a Kinsey Institute release, the university reports that approximately 5,000 demographically representative U.S. singles aged 18 and older completed a 120-question online survey between March and April this year, adding to a dataset that now includes more than 80,000 participants since the study began in 2010. The project is further outlined on the institute’s Singles in America research page as a long-term effort to track attitudes toward singlehood, dating, relationships, marriage, family, and the wider social context in which those relationships form.
One of the headline findings is renewed interest in marriage itself. According to the Kinsey Institute’s summary, 45 percent of single respondents now say they would like to marry someday, up from roughly one-third when the study first launched in 2010. At the same time, the share of singles who say they do not want a romantic relationship at all has fallen from a pandemic-era high of 32 percent in 2021 to 24 percent in the latest wave, suggesting that the retreat from relationships seen earlier in the decade has eased. The data also show that roughly three in ten singles are open to a long-term committed relationship without plans for marriage, and that many now see the ideal age for marriage as later than previous generations did, with a longer period of dating and discernment before making that commitment.
Researchers note that singles are becoming more intentional and selective about their relationships. The Kinsey report highlights that about 34 percent of singles now keep a checklist for what they want in a long-term partner, up from 25 percent in 2021, and that about half of Gen Z respondents say they research a potential date online before meeting in person. Economic pressures are a major driver of this deliberation. Match’s own announcement, linked from its Human Connections Hub, emphasizes that 52 percent of singles say the difficult economy has made them more interested in finding someone to share life with, compared with roughly 27 percent who said the same back in 2013. Yet more singles also report feeling they need to be further along financially or professionally before getting serious about a relationship, underscoring how money can both encourage and delay commitment.
The study points to a shift in how attraction develops. Nearly half of surveyed singles—49 percent—say they have fallen for someone they were not initially physically attracted to, up from about 30 percent in 2010. When asked why their attraction grew, respondents most often pointed to good conversation and shared interests, with appearance playing a smaller role than in earlier waves. Kinsey’s overview of the project notes that the survey tracks attitudes about “love, sex, and commitment” over time, and the latest results suggest that emotional connection and compatibility are increasingly central for singles considering long-term partnerships.
Attitudes toward differences in religion, social views, and finances are also changing. Since 2019, the share of singles who say they would be willing to fall in love with someone who holds different religious beliefs has climbed from 43 percent to 57 percent, according to the Kinsey data, while openness to differences on social issues and money has risen as well. Political identity appears to be a more stubborn barrier: the institute’s summary notes that overall attitudes toward political differences have shifted little, but that party labels have become more likely to disqualify a potential partner, especially among Gen Z singles. These relational trends sit against a broader backdrop of religious change in the United States. The Public Religion Research Institute’s 2024 Census of American Religion reports that religiously unaffiliated Americans now make up about 28 percent of the population, while a recent Gallup analysis finds that 45 percent of Americans identify as Protestant or nondenominational Christian and 21 percent as Catholic, with roughly one in five not identifying with any religion. For churches and ministries, the Kinsey findings on interfaith openness and political caution suggest that single adults are navigating spiritual and ideological diversity inside their dating lives as well as in the wider culture.
The survey also sheds light on what singles say they are looking for in a committed partner. Trust and emotional safety top the list, with 39 percent of respondents naming someone they can trust and confide in as a leading priority and 28 percent citing emotional maturity. Around half of Gen Z and millennial singles say they want a partner who has been to therapy, reflecting the rising importance of mental health in relationship expectations. As the Kinsey Institute notes in its description of Singles in America, the study is designed to track not only romantic outcomes but also how work, finances, gender roles, technology, and mental health shape relationship choices, offering pastors, counselors, and lay leaders who work with single adults a detailed look at the pressures many of them carry into Christian community.