America's singles are sending a surprisingly warm signal about committed relationships — and they want calm, not fireworks. The 15th annual Singles in America study, conducted by the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University with funding from Match, finds that when forced to choose what matters more in a relationship, singles pick peace and emotional safety over passion and excitement by more than two to one — 34% versus 14%, according to coverage by ScienMag and Global Dating Insights.
The gap widens further among women, where 40% choose calm and only 9% choose passion. The survey, based on a demographically representative sample of approximately 5,000 single adults aged 18 and older surveyed in March and April 2026, is the nation's longest-running annual study of unmarried adults, having now surveyed more than 80,000 people across 15 years.
The most striking reversal concerns the desire for partnership itself. The share of respondents who said they do not want a relationship climbed steadily to a peak of 32% in 2021 but has since fallen to 24% in 2026. Over a longer arc, the change is even more pronounced: in 2010, 33% of singles said they would like to marry someday; by 2026 that figure had risen to 45%. Yet the institution of marriage is being reimagined rather than simply embraced — the ideal age for marrying has increased, the ideal length of dating before a wedding has grown, and roughly 30% of respondents said they would be open to a long-term committed relationship with no intention of marrying at all.
Nearly three-quarters of singles (72%) are interested in or open to a relationship, yet only 16% say they are actively seeking a committed one. The largest group sits somewhere in between: close to half say they are not actively looking but would welcome a relationship if the right person appeared. As the researchers note, the data point to a population that still wants deep attachment but is increasingly flexible about the legal and social packaging that comes with it.