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We spent more than a week testing more than a dozen popular dating apps and sites to figure out which are the most effective, affordable and ultimately the overall best dating apps. That meant monitoring three made-up profiles for 24 hours, collecting match data and using every feature a dating website or app comes with. The best dating sites. Best for confident women. Best for quick and easy hookups. Best free dating site. Best for serious relationship seekers.

When it comes to the most popular dating app out there, you may be surprised to see what's happening in your area. Because while there are some definite heavy hitters in the dating app world, there's actually a huge amount of variation in what's popular around the country.

In fact, technology company Quantcast looked at over 480,000 searches from January 6, 2017 - February 5, 2017 to see what apps people are searching for and where they're using them for Bustle. Different states seem to go for different apps, though, interestingly, there are some definitely clusters where certain dating apps are popular in a group of states. And it's not always the ones you think — in fact, a relative underdog called Maple Match is getting some real love, but more on that later.

It's just useful information to have. Partially just for curiosity's sake, but also because it'll show you where to meet singles in your state. Now, it has its limits (just because Grindr is the most popular searched for app in Maine and California doesn't mean it's going to work for you if you're a straight woman), but you can still get a good idea of where to find folks.

So here's what the map looks like, so you can see exactly what's going on in your state.

And here were the highlights of what they found:

PlentyOfFish, a free app, came out as the highest indexed dating app. That sort of surprised me, because it's not one my friends use as much as Tinder or Hinge, but it's obviously getting a lot of use in other circles.

There it is: Tinder, the OG of dating apps, actually came in as the second highest indexed dating app.

Although it may not have won the most states, there are a sprinkling of states where Grindr was the most searched. As you can see from the map, the West Coast and New England were big fans.

Bumble, the female-led dating app, did really well in certain New England states. It came in at number one in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland.

This was my favorite part. Washington and Oregon searched for Maple Match — a dating app to help you find Canadians — the most. Whether it's just because of their proximity to the border or because of the new presidency, it's hard to tell. But Canada is looking appealing.

Maybe it's because in big cities there are so many missed connections every day (and because we're all too lazy to travel more than three neighborhoods for a date), but Happn, which matches you with people you cross paths with, was the most popular search among New Yorkers.

Though Coffee Meets Bagel only got two percent of the searches around the country, it was the most searched for dating app in Hawaii and among men and those with a math science background. So if you've got a thing for science-y dudes with high incomes, you might want to give it a try.

You can take a look at the map to see exactly where your state fell. If you're having trouble meeting people, the most searched dating app in your area is a good place to start.

Feb 9, 2017 Share
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Which Online Love Connection is Your State Falling for?

Love is in the air and it’s apparent online, where an increasing number of singles find their next date virtually. Cupid’s arrows hit the target in online dating apps, which have seen triple the users in recent years. At highspeedinternet.com, we wanted to speculate about which platforms get used most often to find partners in each state, and if any patterns emerged in our collective search for the perfect match. What did our quest for dating data uncover? Niche apps that focus on demographic factors like religion, gender, or lifestyle are on the rise and trending heavily in certain parts of the country. We expected to see wide areas of Tinder country, where swiping right is part of the single life. And it’s true that Tinder peppers our map from sea to shining sea. But the unexpected winner of our virtual lonely hearts club? Christian Mingle, a faith-based dating site, dominates the Bible Belt. Unfortunately, experts have long observed that higher divorce rates also reign across the same sections of country, so perhaps Christians are mingling a little too much. Ahem. To identify the most popular dating app, we utilized Google Trends data and isolated apps and sites that had statistically significant popularity in each state.

STATE	DATING APP	DESCRIPTION
Alabama	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
Alaska	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
Arizona	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
Arkansas	Farmer’s Only	Rural focused dating
California	Coffee Meets Bagel	Ladies choice dating
Colorado	eHarmony	Traditional Profile Match Site
Connecticut	Match.com	Dating community
Delaware	eHarmony	Traditional Profile Match Site
DC	Hinge	FB friends Dating App
Florida	Senior People Meet	Senior-focused dating
Georgia	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
Hawaii	Grindr	Gay dating app
Idaho	Farmer’s Only	Rural focused dating
Illinois	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
Indiana	Grindr	Gay dating app
Iowa	Farmer’s Only	Rural focused dating
Kansas	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
Kentucky	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
Louisiana	Cougar Life	Older women focused dating
Maine	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
Maryland	eHarmony	Traditional Profile Match Site
Massachusetts	Senior People Meet	Senior-focused dating
Michigan	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
Minnesota	eHarmony	Traditional Profile Match Site
Mississippi	Lulu	Women centric dating
Missouri	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
Montana	Plenty of Fish	Traditional Profile Match Site
Nebraska	Farmer’s Only	Rural focused dating
Nevada	Grindr	Gay dating app
New Hampshire	Match.com	Dating community
New Jersey	Bumble	Women first dating
New Mexico	Grindr	Gay dating app
New York	Happn	Location based dating
North Carolina	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
North Dakota	Match.com	Dating community
Ohio	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
Oklahoma	Farmer’s Only	Rural focused dating
Oregon	Down	Casual dating
Pennsylvania	Down	Casual dating
Rhode Island	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
South Carolina	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
South Dakota	Match.com	Dating community
Tennessee	Christian Mingle	Faith-Based Profile Matching
Texas	Down	Casual dating
Utah	LDS Singles	Dating for Mormons
Vermont	OKCupid	Traditional Profile Match Site
Virginia	Down	Casual dating
Washington	Tinder	Gamified Dating App
West Virginia	Farmer’s Only	Rural focused dating
Wisconsin	Match.com	Dating community
Wyoming	Zoosk	International Dating App

Let’s do a deep dive into the data, shall we? We’ll determine exactly what the state of dating is in the United States and which apps have a little something more to say about the state that loves them.

Regional Romance

What’s trending across particular parts of the country? Take a look at what each region is head over heels for.

• The South is way into Christian Mingle, choosing to keep the faith in online romance.
• Western parts of the United States are down with more casual hook-ups like Grindr, Down, and Tinder.
• The Northeast kicks it old-school with traditional profile sites like eHarmony, com, OK Cupid.
• Midwest states keep it in the country by dating with Farmer’s Only.

Church Connections

The more heavily religious an area is, the more likely the favored darting app is to be affiliated with religion.

• All across the Bible Belt, Christians can’t resist getting together with Christian Mingle.
• Mormon couples opt to find the perfect connection in Utah with LDS Singles.

As you go west, however, and the non-religious population grows, religiously-affiliated dating gets jilted. You won’t find a single state that prefers to mingle the Christian way beyond the Rockies.

It’s all About the Ladies

Lots of recent, trendy dating apps focus on women for a reason. Most of them are popular in states with some serious girl power going on.

• As one of the states with the top 5 best paid leave and wage equality ratings in the U.S., New Jersey knows that ladies’ choice Bumble is the only way to find a sweetie.
• Mississippi women, who have the highest percentage of registered women voters in the country, know what they want and they aren’t afraid to ask LuLu for it.
• Louisiana ladies are living the Cougar Life with the second highest percentage of registered women voters.
• With some of the friendliest paid leave policies and a smaller than average wage gap, it’s no surprise that California is hungry for Coffee Meets Bagel.

Most Popular Online Dating Site

A Few Other Favorite Findings

• Wyoming cruises the dating scene with Zoosk, an international dating app. While Wyoming still has a fairly low immigrant population, it’s seen one of the largest rates of immigration growth in the US, up 33% from 2000–2011.
• D.C. is all about who you know (nudge, nudge. wink, wink), so it’s no surprise their favorite app, Hinge, makes connections between Facebook friends.
• Montana is a renowned fishing locale, and their obsession with Plenty of Fish is no secret.
• With one of the top 5 oldest median ages in the United States, Florida’s residents definitely need Senior People Meet. But the oldest median age in the U.S. by far? Maine, who is still setting romance on fire with Tinder. Keep on with your bad self, Mainers. Age is just a number.

What Is The Most Popular Dating Site

Does your state’s dating app obsession seem like the perfect match? Share our map and discuss. But no fighting, kids. Only love. Sweet, sweet love.

Author - HSI Staff

Kaz is a writer, blogger and social media junkie. She uses her tenacity to investigate the best of the Internets.

Most Used Free Dating Sites

The Most Popular Dating Site Of This Month