The Cost Of A Date Is Going Viral, But It's Totally Wrong & Tricking Everybody

When I imagine my perfect date, it usually involves delicious food and wine at a tucked-away spot in my neighborhood. Living in NYC, one of my favorite things to do is scope out new places to eat and explore — and my boyfriend really enjoys this, too. But one thing we’ve both realized is that dating can be freaking expensive, and it’s not always within our budgets. Netflix and chill might get a bad rap, but hey, at least it’s affordable! These tweets about a study of date costs have people on social media freaking out, but as it turns out, the data is a little misleading.

On Aug. 28, Twitter account Only in Boston tweeted out a map of the United States with the average price of a date in all 50 states. The data is attributed to the dating site Match, and prices range from $38.27 in South Dakota to $297.27 in New York. The tweet is going viral and prompting a ton of hilarious responses — like, when did dating get this expensive?! But Elite Daily reached out to Match for clarification and learned that this data doesn’t actually come from Match at all. In fact, it originates from a 24/7 Wall Street report in 2018, which was listed alongside actual Match data in a USA Today story on dating costs. Thus, the confusion ensued.

According to Match’s 2018 Singles in America survey, the real cost of a date is much lower. A spokesperson for Match reveals that a first date typically costs no more than a cup of coffee or a few drinks at the bar. However, singles do spend an average of $1,596 a year on their dating lives, which includes everything from new date night outfits to dating app costs. If you break that down into one date a week, it costs $30.96 per date — a far cry from the Twitter infographic numbers.

The responses on Twitter are true comedic gold, and a good reminder that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a great time on a date. All it takes is a willingness to get to know one another.