Houston is the Sixth Worst City for Singles in the U.S. and the Worst in Texas, a Study Finds

The Pandemic has made dating hard for Americans, COVID-19 created new problems for romantic relationships in the United States. People are looking towards online dating searching for a solution for their singleness, but maybe people in Houston will find it more difficult than others. 

As the pandemic roared in March 2020, 3 billion users swiped on Tinder, while video calls on Bumble increased by 70%. Dates for OkCupid users grew by 700% within the same time period. This doesn’t mean that Americans succeeded in their love life. 

A study by Michelle Delgado from Real Estate Witch analyzed the 50 most populous metro areas in the U.S. from the best places to be single to the worst. The study took into account: the percentage of the unmarried population, disposable income among working singles, the number of restaurants per 100,000 residents, the number of arts, entertainment, and recreation establishments per 100,000 residents, the average star rating of the top “date night restaurants” on Yelp, the cost of an average date and each metro area’s overall cost of living. 

Sadly, singles in the Houston metro area in Texas will struggle as it ranked sixth to last, almost at the bottom of the list, making out one of the worst places to date in the United States. The Bayou City scored abysmally low in most of the rankings. It has the second least amount of entertainment options per 100k residents, with only 26 vs Los Angeles 154 options, Nashville’s 77, or Charlotte with 44. It also has one of the fewest number of restaurants per 100k residents with only 64. 

One of Houston’s biggest problems, regarding dating, and why it lands on one of the worst spots in the list is that it has fewer singles than other cities. More than 50% of the population is already married, leaving only 47% of the population unmarried. 

Houston ranked worst among the other big cities of Texas, as San Antonio ranked 21st, Dallas 43rd, and Austin making it into the top of the list as the fifth-best city for singles in the United States. Maybe Houstonians will need to travel a bit if they are trying to find love, as New Orleans ranked 1st in the list, and is only 350 miles away.