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Online dating: How do Europeans really find love?

Shaheen Welling
June 21, 2025

Many young Europeans are using apps to look for significant others. How effective are they? Do romantic partners still meet by chance?

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Soulmates, the perfect match — do they only exist in rom-coms? Or in reality, too?

Can Europeans only get dates online these days? Not exclusively, but more and more often. Young people do still try the old-school way by flirting at school, university, the workplace or in bars.

However, social psychologist Johanna Degen said: "Today, actually, more than 50% of all couples meet online. But many also say it's unromantic and boring. ... So, we wish and we seek for offline dating options, but pragmatically and actually, we meet online.”

Dating apps remain popular and offer a smorgasbord of ages, lifestyles and sexual orientations. Even now, a good 80 million people across Europe are looking for love online. In Germany, it's as many as every second person between the ages of 25 and 35.

A report by Euromaxx reporter Shaheen Welling.