Insights: the State of First Dates
Every quarter, FirstDateTab will publish State of First Dates, a report on what first dates really cost across the US, built from anonymous reader submissions and opted-in member date logs.
What's in each report
- Median and typical first-date cost by city and region
- Who pays: paying in full, splitting, and how it's changing
- Coffee vs. drinks vs. dinner: what people actually choose and spend
- How people met (by app or in person) and second-date rates
- Cost to get to date three, and cost until exclusive
- Age-group and year-over-year trends, with inflation context from our 1955 to today history chart
How we keep it anonymous
- Every published or licensed figure comes from a group of at least 10 people or submissions. Smaller groups are hidden or merged.
- Individual records are never sold or shared, and emails and notes never leave our database.
- Member data is included only with an explicit research opt-in, which starts unticked.
- Submissions are moderated before they count.
Full details in our privacy policy.
Timeline
The first edition will be published once enough submissions are in to report cities reliably. Until then, city pages show published study figures, clearly labeled. Newsletter subscribers get each report first, and members get early access to the data a week before it goes public.
Licensing and custom data
Journalists, researchers, dating and hospitality brands, and finance and budgeting apps can license aggregated first-date cost statistics, custom city cuts, or sponsor a report. We never provide individual-level data.
Email firstdatetab@mail.grokbot.com Use the contact form
Press: we're happy to share current figures and explain how they're sourced, free of charge, with a link back.