42 percent would not date a virgin; 47 percent report having a “friends with benefits” relationship; 44 percent of women and 63 percent of men have had one night stands. Almost a third say they’ve had sex by the third date and almost half said they had sex by the sixth date.

Match.com, the world’s largest online dating site, released [on 2/5/13] findings from its third annual ‘Singles in America’ study – the largest and most comprehensive national study of singles’ romantic dating habits, sexual practices, and lifestyles in history. Prior to the first study in 2010, little thorough research had been conducted or shared on singles, a population that reflects one-third of the U.S. population (107 million singles, according to the most recent U.S. census). The 2012 study debuts the inclusion of married individuals in order to gain a greater understanding of sex and love and to compare the lifestyles, attitudes and trends of singles versus married men and women.

Now in its third generation, the extensive study reveals distinct trends as it continues to disprove long-held misconceptions associated with singles’ lifestyle choices and ideologies and documents the rising impact of technology in society.

“The media portrays long-term love and commitment as being doomed. Sexting, new attitudes about virginity, the rise of ‘friends with benefits,’ emerging ‘Internet etiquette’ and women’s rising roles in courtship all presage a dramatically new dating landscape. But even the bad economy can’t kill love,” said Dr. Helen Fisher. “Despite all we hear about hooking up and divorce, we now have significant data that shows American singles (including men) are earnestly seeking respect, trust, transparency and commitment in a relationship. Over the three years of this study, women have consistently wanted more independence, while men have expressed more interest in romance. Nevertheless, both sexes believe a relationship can last, and both continue their primordial drive to find and keep love.”

Highlighted trends revealed by the study include:

• Friends with benefits: An emerging stage in (pre-commitment) romance? 47% of singles have had a friends with benefits relationship in the past (40% of women and 53% of men). With a drastic year-over-year increase, these arrangements are turning into long-term relationships more than ever before (2012: 44%, 2011: 20%).
• Despite the rise of casual sex in America, more women are insisting on commitment before intimacy with a new partner. Women increasingly want to wait until they are in an exclusive relationship before having sex with a partner (37% of single women in 2012, 31% in 2011, and 25% in 2010).
• The struggling economy is not dramatically affecting people’s dating patterns. Nearly 2/3 of singles say they have not changed their dating habits over the last three years (2012: 57%; 2011: 60%; 2010: 61%).
• Think you’ll meet your next date at a bar? Think again. Connecting online ranks #1 amongst places where singles meet. A historically unprecedented number of single Americans are now turning to the Internet to find love: nearly 1/3 of singles (27.5%) reported that they have dated someone whom they met online. In addition, 20% of singles met their most recent first date online vs. 7% who met at a bar.

“As the leader in the online dating industry for almost two decades, gaining an even deeper knowledge of our audience — an incredibly influential segment of society — is invaluable to our business,” said Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match.com. “Since its inception, Singles in America has proven to be an unprecedented source of insight into the ideologies and lifestyle choices of today’s singles. Now in our third year with the study, we are identifying trends and compelling findings on everything from the prevalence of technology in the dating process to singles’ sentiments about married life, as well as previously unstudied trend data.”

Singles in America (SIA) was funded by Match.com and conducted by Market Tools in association with biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher and evolutionary biologist Dr. Justin R. Garcia of The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. The 2012 study is based on the attitudes and behaviors taken from a representative sample of 5,481 U.S. singles and 1,095 married people aged 21 to 65+, and remains the most comprehensive annual survey of single Americans.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on multivu.com—however, the original URL is no longer available.]