America’s Dating Crisis Is Dire, But Here’s How We Can Reverse It
March 12, 2026
It’s hardly a secret that dating is a mess today. Young adults are not happy with the state of things, and it’s certainly not producing the social goods that matter most: marriage and babies. Marriage and fertility rates have dropped by more than half in the last several decades. Society cannot continue without these, and neither happens unless boy meets girl. This is why the dating crisis matters.
A new national survey conducted jointly by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and the Wheatley Institute gives us some much-needed perspective on the dating recession. While providing both good and bad news, their conclusions are mostly hopeful.
