BOSTON is now under coverage.
Local dating, modeled. Every signal in Boston, converted into a tactical roadmap.
Greater Boston is open as a field office. The headline numbers, each sourced and confidence-flagged:
- 28% Census ACS 5-yr, 2020-2024
- $3,100 per month MAPC Rental Dashboard, 2025 Q3
- 55% Census ACS 5-yr, 2020-2024
By the numbers
19 sourced, confidence-flagged metrics for Boston — gender, money, neighborhoods, and political lean. The deep dive, with charts, is in the console below.
- Singles, 22 to 50
960,000
- Men never married
58%
- Women never married
55%
- 1-bedroom rent
$3,100
- Living wage
$69,891
- Dining out, per year
$5,800
- Discretionary, per month
$400
- Deficit threshold
$75,000
- Bachelor’s or higher
52%
- Graduate degrees
28%
- College students
250,000students
- Median age
31years
- Never married
40%
- Unenrolled
56%
- Registered Democrats
39%
- Cambridge D-to-R
23
- Transfer friction
8minutes
- Red Line cluster
0transfers
- Red to Orange
1transfer
The shape of the market
About 52% of Greater Boston adults hold at least a bachelor's degree, among the highest rates of any U.S. metro.
The median single resident of Greater Boston is about 31 years old.
Across the metro, 40% of men and 37% of women have never married, the engine of a very large single population.
More than 250,000 college and graduate students study across Greater Boston's 50-plus institutions.
How dating actually happens
Only about 14% of matches on curated apps like Hinge turn into a first date.
Roughly 1 in 10 partnered adults met their partner online, and the share climbs sharply for younger and LGB couples.
One in four matches never gets a reply.
53% of online daters say their overall experience has been positive.
Dating safety in Boston
78% of active dating-app users report burnout: 80% of women (driven by message volume) and 74% of men (driven by a lack of responses).
60% of Americans support requiring a background check before someone can create a dating profile.
An estimated 26% of men have received unsolicited explicit content, far below the rate for women.
56% of women under 50 have been sent unsolicited explicit images while dating online.
48% of online daters have faced at least one form of harassing behavior on a dating platform.
43% of women under 50 say a match kept contacting them after they said no.
52% of online daters say a scammer or bot has contacted them.
63% of men under 50 say a scammer or bot has contacted them, the highest of any group.
11% of women under 50 have been physically threatened on a dating platform.
40% of daters say platforms do a bad job removing fake and bot accounts; only 20% say they do well.
The LGBTQ+ landscape
53% of LGB adults have used a dating app, far more than straight adults.
An estimated 6.5% of Massachusetts adults identify as LGBT, among the highest shares in the country, concentrated in the South End and Jamaica Plain.
About 24% of LGB couples met online, roughly three times the straight rate.
About 70% of LGB adults under 30 have used a dating app, the highest-adoption cohort anywhere.
7.6% of U.S. adults now identify as LGBTQ+, up from 3.5% in 2012.
22.3% of adults aged 18 to 34 identify as LGBTQ+.
Political alignment
In Cambridge, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about 23 to 1.
62% of women on dating apps say a match's political views matter to them.
39% of Boston voters are registered Democrats; just 4% are Republicans, a 9-to-1 edge.
39% of single men say they are less likely to date someone who identifies as a feminist.
71% of Democrats would not seriously date a Trump voter, versus 47% of Republicans who would not date a Democrat.
73% of college-educated single women say they are less likely to date a Trump supporter.
56% of Boston voters are unenrolled, the city's largest bloc by far.
The cost of dating
The average Boston household spends about $5,800 a year dining out, among the highest in the country.
A single adult in Suffolk County needs about $69,900 a year just to cover the basics.
At $75,000 to $100,000, a single clears roughly $250 to $400 a month of discretionary dating capital.
Anyone earning under $75,000 a year runs a structural monthly deficit after Boston rent and basics, with little or nothing left for dating.
Getting around
Every subway transfer adds about 8 minutes of friction to a cross-neighborhood date.
The Red Line forms a zero-transfer cluster: Cambridge, Somerville, South Boston, and the Seaport all connect without changing trains.
Back Bay and the South End sit on the Orange Line, so reaching the Red Line cluster costs one transfer at Downtown Crossing.
| Sea | BkB | Cam | Som | SoE | SoB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seaport | — | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Back Bay | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Cambridge | 0 | 1 | — | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Somerville | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 |
| South End | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | — | 1 |
| South Boston | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | — |
Neighborhood intelligence
| Neighborhood | Singles | M / F | Income | 1BR rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridge | 26,700 | 50 / 50 | $99,000 | $2,785 |
| Somerville | 18,500 | 49 / 51 | $91,000 | $2,750 |
| South Boston | 9,400 | 50 / 50 | $105,000 | $2,860 |
| South End | 5,800 | 48 / 52 | $98,000 | $3,280 |
| Back Bay | 4,600 | 45 / 55 | $122,000 | $3,900 |
| Seaport District | 1,600 | 54 / 46 | $130,000 | $4,054 |
Local date spots
Real venues across Boston, scraped from Google Maps and filterable by neighborhood. Ratings and review counts are live Google data — never paid placement.
- Back Bay
STK Steakhouse
- Back Bay
Lolita Back Bay
- South Boston
Beehive Restaurant
- South End
Barcelona Wine Bar
- Back Bay
Buttermilk & Bourbon - Back Bay
- Back Bay
Abe & Louie's
- Somerville
Sarma Restaurant
- Cambridge
Wusong Road Tiki Bar
- Seaport District
Ocean Prime
- Seaport District
75 on Liberty Wharf
- South Boston
Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant
- South End
Mamma Maria
- Seaport District
Marcelino’s Seaport
- South Boston
Eddie Merlot's
- South Boston
Citrus & Salt Boston
- Somerville
Five Horses Tavern
- Seaport District
Boqueria Seaport
- South Boston
Capo Restaurant & Supper Club
- Somerville
Dali
- Back Bay
Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse
- Back Bay
Bukowski Tavern
- Seaport District
F1 Arcade Boston
- Seaport District
Lucky's Lounge
- Seaport District
Rooftop at The Envoy
- Back Bay
Piattini
- South Boston
jm Curley
- South End
MIDA
- South Boston
SRV
- Seaport District
Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse
- South Boston
Fox & The Knife