Online dating increasingly popular for single parents

A growing number of single parents in the US are turning to online dating sites to help them find love, new research suggests.

According to according to MRI's Spring '07 Survey of the American Consumer, lone mums and dads are 185 per cent more likely to surf the internet looking for a partner than their childless counterparts.

The survey reveals that almost 2.5 million US adults will have participated in online dating during the last 30 days and almost 25 per cent of those men and women who log on to find love are aged between 35 and 44. However, almost 50 per cent are aged under 35, meaning that this age group is 59 per cent more likely to date online.

It was also found that men are eight per cent more likely than women to use an internet dating site.

Anne Marie Kelly, vice president of marketing and strategic planning at MRI, said in a statement: "While the increased acceptance of this kind of dating might lead people to assume 'everyone is doing it', in actual fact a very small percentage of adults date online.

"What's interesting is that both genders, younger and more mature adults and most income brackets are represented in a profile of online daters."

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