One-third of US marriages start online: study

More than one third of US marriages begin with online dating, and those couples are slightly happier and more likely to stay together than couples who meet through other means, said a study today.
Online dating has ballooned into a billion dollar industry and the Internet "may be altering the dynamics and outcome of marriage itself," said the study by US researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study is based on a nationally representative survey of 19,131 people who married between 2005 and 2012.
"We found evidence for a dramatic shift since the advent of the Internet in how people are meeting their spouse," said the study, led by John Cacioppo of the University of Chicago's Department of Psychology.

People who reported meeting their spouse online tended to be age 30-49 and of higher income brackets than those who met their spouses offline, the survey found.
Of those who did not meet online, nearly 22 per cent met through work, 19 per cent through friends, 11 per cent at school, seven per cent through family, nine per cent at a bar or club and four per cent at church, the study said.

So who is happier?
When researchers looked at how many couples had divorced by the end of the survey period, they found that 5.96 per cent of online married couples had broken up, compared to 7.67 per cent of offline married couples.

The difference remained statistically significant even after controlling for variables like year of marriage, sex, age, education, ethnicity, household income, religion and employment status.
Among couples who were still married during the survey, those who met online reported higher marital satisfaction -- an average score of 5.64 on a satisfaction survey -- than those who met offline and averaged 5.48.
The most satisfied among those who met offline were couples who grew up together or met through schools, social gatherings or places of worship.
The lowest satisfaction rates were in people who met through family, work, bars/clubs or blind dates.