Picture the end of a dinner date: the check slides across the table, candles still lit.
The number staring back is $189 on average, not just the entrées and drinks, but the gas money and grooming that happened two hours earlier.
For millennials, it hits $252 per outing.
That millennial leap, 32 percent in a single year, outpaced broad consumer-price inflation by nearly twelve times, and many daters have not adjusted their budgets to match.
So what exactly pushed a casual evening out past the cost of a week of groceries?
Why one date drains a paycheck faster than a tank of gas
The $189 average covers transportation, getting ready, and the outing itself, food, drinks, or tickets. None of those line items is new, but their combination has compounded into what many personal-finance observers describe as a hidden recurring expense, one that people rarely budget for the way they budget for rent or a car payment. The dinner, the Uber, the new outfit: each feels modest alone.
Together, they form a bill that now rivals a car insurance payment. “Date-flation,” as the phenomenon has been dubbed, far outpaced the 2.7 percent broad CPI rise recorded over the same period, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for the twelve months ending December 2025.
That gap between spending reality and spending awareness is what makes the number land so hard. Most daters have not adjusted their frequency or expectations to match it.
What a typical dating year actually looks like in dollars
Those per-date costs stack into an average of $2,323 spent on dates over the past year, even as Americans are going on fewer dates than before, averaging about 12 outings annually, down from roughly 14 the year prior. Millennials reported the highest cost per date at $252, followed by Gen Z at $205, and the millennial figure represents the steepest generational increase recorded in the survey, up 32 percent year over year.
The split is widening at both ends. The share of singles who say a typical date costs $300 or more has risen to 14 percent, while a separate Bank of America Better Money Habits survey found that more than half of Gen Z adults reported spending $0 a month on dating entirely.
That growing divide is a K-shaped dating economy, pulling the middle class of daters in two directions at once.
Where the survey numbers come from and what 2,501 Americans said
The research was conducted by Ipsos on a sample of 2,501 adults ages 18 and older, with quotas and weighting applied to reflect the American population and a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. The primary source is the BMO Real Financial Progress Index, an annual consumer financial survey now in its sixth consecutive year of tracking dating costs.
Nearly half of singles, 47 percent, say dating is simply not financially worth it. Fifty percent of Gen Z and 40 percent of millennials say the cost of dating gets in the way of reaching financial goals, things like saving for a home or paying down student debt.
For a wider look at how the job market is squeezing young Americans, see how the AI hiring gap has tightened entry-level incomes at the same moment date costs are climbing.
Where date-flation breaks down and who it skips
Among people already in serious relationships, 58 percent say they are financially dependent on their significant other, up from 40 percent just a year before. That 18-point rise in a single year suggests committed couples are responding to shared cost pressure not by spending less, but by pooling resources more aggressively, a meaningful behavioral shift hiding inside a single percentage.
Not everyone is stretching their budget equally. More than half of Gen Z adults reported spending $0 a month on dating in the Bank of America Better Money Habits survey, a zero-spend cohort growing alongside the high-spend one. It mirrors the pattern seen across other consumer categories, like the 70-plus in every 100 online carts abandoned before checkout, where cost consciousness quietly reshapes behavior without anyone announcing it.
Those who found a lasting relationship say it took a median of ten dates before committing, meaning singles may spend close to $1,678 upfront before finding a steady partner.
What happens next as the cost of connection keeps climbing
More than one in four Americans admitted cancelling a date because they could not afford it. More than 40 percent changed their plans for financial reasons, with coffee replacing dinner and walks replacing concerts as low-cost alternatives gain social acceptance among younger daters.
One silver lining is that date-flation may be forcing financial conversations earlier. Discussing spending habits, debt, and savings goals on a first or second date was once considered awkward; for a growing share of Americans, it is now a practical necessity. The stigma is eroding faster than anyone predicted.
The broader picture is adaptation rather than retreat. With dating expenses climbing far faster than the wider cost of living, the couples who navigate it most honestly may end up with something more durable than a memorable dinner: a shared financial reality they both walked into with their eyes open.
