According to the UK’s office for national statistics, more than seven million people in Britain live alone now, compared with three million in 1971. Single parent families are also on the rise, especially those with lone mothers. Not only are more people living alone or without a partner, people are also getting married later, especially the men. (Full BBC article here).

A recent report has shown that 20% of British Internet users used dating sites in December last year compared to only 13% in America . The French, however, beat everyone, with 22% of their Internet users logging on for love.

Add this to the fact over half of the UK’s adult population now have access to broadband and you’ll realise that not only is there a real need in this country for online dating services, the infrastructure exists to make it relatively easy for comapnies to fulfil that need.

November and December is traditionally a busy month on the sites, because the holiday season can make people feel pretty lonely. I wonder whether the figures would have been significantly different if the research had been done in a different month. Either way, if you account for the fact that not all Internet users are single, it emerges that online dating has now become pretty much standard in the UK. About time, too.