Nearly half of single Americans didn’t go on a single in-person date last year. They haven’t stopped wanting to meet someone. They’ve stopped trusting the ways on offer.
Every Thanksgiving, someone counts the chairs. It’s a small ritual: who’s coming, who’s bringing someone, who might be bringing someone next year. For a great many single people, it’s also the moment the year comes into focus. Another twelve months of good intentions, a few promising conversations, and very little that happened in a real room.
If that sounds familiar, you’re in large company.
The number that surprised everyone
In September, the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University released the 15th annual Singles in America study, conducted with Match and drawing on nearly 5,000 single adults across the country. One finding stood out above the rest: 48% of single Americans went on no in-person dates at all in the past year.
Read quickly, it sounds like a generation giving up. Read the rest of the study and the picture changes. The share of singles who say they don’t want a relationship has fallen to about 24%, down from 32% in 2021. More people are open to partnership than five years ago. Fewer of them are actually meeting anyone.
That isn’t a lack of desire. It’s a lack of good routes.
The room is back
At the same time, singles are voting with their evenings. Eventbrite data shared with Axios showed singles events doubled nationwide between 2022 and 2025, and Eventbrite’s 2026 Social Study found that 79% of 18-to-35-year-olds plan to attend more events this year. The company calls it a “reset to real.”
The reasons aren’t mysterious. In a room, you learn in ten minutes what a profile can’t tell you in ten weeks: whether someone is warm, whether they listen, whether they’re kind to the person pouring the wine. Chemistry is something you notice, not something you’re shown.
People haven’t stopped looking for someone. They’ve stopped looking at screens to find them.
Why matchmakers are busy again
The same shift is reaching matchmaking. This summer, Seattle’s public radio station asked whether the city’s booming matchmaking industry could solve what it called the “relationship recession.” Across the country, the people seeking help are often the ones you’d least expect to need it: accomplished, social, short on time, and tired of doing the sorting alone.
But matchmaking has a trust problem of its own. Many services won’t tell you the price until you’ve sat through a consultation, and few will say plainly where their matches come from. For something this personal, that’s a lot to take on faith.
Introduced by people who’ve met them
Luvo was built to answer both questions before you ask them.
Every introduction comes from the Constellation: seven in-person brands for dating, friendship and networking, hosting more than 250 evenings a month across 50+ cities. At those evenings, the standout guests, chosen by hosts and fellow guests, are invited into a circle at no cost. Luvo introduces only from those circles, plus members of The Gild Society, a private club entered by application. No one you meet through Luvo was recruited from a database. Everyone was first met in a real room, and everyone introduced pays nothing.
Every client begins with a personal conversation with Anoush, Luvo’s founder, about who you are and the relationship you hope to build. A dedicated matchmaker then manages each introduction, and the concierge team arranges the venue, the time and the details, so all you have to do is show up. And the price is published openly, from $3,250, before you ever speak to anyone.
The Thanksgiving Invitation
For the season of gratitude, every Luvo package is 35% less through Cyber Monday, November 30. Not because the seat needs filling by Thanksgiving, but because the right person is worth starting toward now.
Enter LUVOTHANKS at checkout.
The Introduction (2 introductions): $3,250, now $2,112.50
The Signature Introduction (4 introductions): $5,250, now $3,412.50
The Priority Introduction (6 introductions): $7,500, now $4,875
This Thanksgiving, when someone counts the chairs, let next year’s count be a little different.
Sources: 15th Annual Singles in America Study, Kinsey Institute at Indiana University with Match (September 2026); Eventbrite platform data as reported by Axios (2025); Eventbrite 2026 Social Study, “Reset to Real”; KUOW, “Can Seattle’s booming matchmaking industry solve the relationship recession?” (July 2026).