When you’re a senior and single, you probably wonder, How Do I Meet Senior Singles? I created this helpful guide so that you learn where you can meet other senior singles.
You meet senior singles by using an online dating site like Eharmony. You get access to a platform where you can easily meet other like-minded seniors. It’s an accessible way of communication, where you get in contact with other senior singles on your own terms. After meeting online via chat or video calls, you can decide if you want to meet each other in person.
Meeting other singles is becoming more challenging when you’re getting older. I did some research and selected the best online dating platform for seniors. At the end of the article, I’ll share some places where you can go to meet other people. Ready to meet senior singles? Let’s find out more!
Meet Senior Singles Online – Eharmony
The best platform for meeting other senior singles is the dating platform Eharmony. Eharmony was established in 2000, so this year they’re celebrating 21 years of connecting people and helping them to find love.
Eharmony is known as the #1 trusted dating app. They have a high-quality dating pool of real people who are all genuinely looking to find love or companionship. According to their website, and their user data, Eharmony says that every 14 minutes, someone finds love on their platform.
Eharmony is different than other online dating sites or applications. Because let’s face it, you can find a ton of dating sites online, and they all promise that you’ll easily meet other senior singles. However, there aren’t all focused on finding the best connection for you. Some of these dating sites are even known for creating fake profiles where you are in contact with a chatbot (chat robot).
When using Eharmony, you know that you’ll contact real people who share the same interests. Eharmony even has a section of their platform completely dedicated to seniors. Because senior dating, meeting other senior singles, is different than dating for younger people. Most seniors are more interested in finding companionship first in a new relationship. Love is often getting in the second place.
So meeting senior singles is a different game. Let’s learn more about the application process of Eharmony and how this platform can easily help you find other senior singles.
Eharmony Application Process – Compatibility Quiz
Using Eharmony is straightforward. You can create your account on the website or use the smartphone app, available on all popular devices like iPhone and Android.
When you sign up for Eharmony, you first need to fill in what kind of contact you are looking for and then fill in your profile. After that, you need to make sure you have some time because you need to fill in the compatibility quiz. A questionnaire where you answer all kinds of questions about what type of relationship you’re looking for. This questionnaire or quiz takes around half an hour to complete. It might seem like a long time, but it’s one of the most important steps to make sure you’ll have a great start on the platform.
This questionnaire is Eharmony’s natural barrier to ensure only genuine people interested in finding truly meaningful relationships will sign up for the platform.
With the compatibility quiz of Eharmony, you’ll answer questions that identify your values, habits, and interests. You’re completing your Eharmony profile which is the foundation for your dating journey on the platform. Doing this thoroughly helps you to find other senior singles more easily.
According to their website, there are four essential tips for completing the compatibility quiz;
- Take Your Time so you can answer the questions thoughtfully.
- Be Honest and trust your instincts.
- Take A Break if you feel that you need to. You can easily save your answers and pick up where you left.
- Retaking the quiz is not recommended because, according to Eharmony, your first honest answers will not be significantly different than the initial results.
When you answer the questions, make sure to use complete sentences and fill in your profile like you would to see other profiles. With that in mind, it’s becoming easier to answer the question, complete your profile, and take the first step in meeting other senior singles.
Meet Senior Singles – Connecting With Your Match
If you finished your profile and started your subscription on Eharmony, you’ll automatically receive matches that fit your profile. The great thing about the system is that these matches also will receive your profile.
So, it’s time to connect! The most important thing is that you genuinely try to create a connection. Online dating and getting to know people online are similar to in real life. The most significant difference is that you aren’t in the same room with each other.
Start talking, act as you normally would in real life, and probably are good to go! The Eharmony application allows basically three types of communication with your matches;
- Icebreakers, a short message to break the ice. Like in real life, when you say to someone in a bar, ‘Hi, can I buy you a drink?’
- Questions that easily get to know your match by using five questions of a unique list of 57 questions, known as the guided communication process. It’s an easy way of getting to know each other.
- Sending a direct message using Eharmony Mail allows you to use your own creativity and connect with your match.
When there’s a real connection with one of your matches in the Eharmony application, you can both decide to meet up in real life. Maybe you just find your new love!
Online Dating: The Easiest Way To Meet Senior Singles
You might ask yourself, why can’t I go to a bar to meet other senior singles? Well, you actually can. I tell you later more about other places where you can meet senior singles. However, when looking at the Time Use Survey of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), we learn that seniors spend most of their time at home.
As you can see in the chart above, seniors at 55 and older spend around 4,5 hours per day watching TV. Only half an hour per day they use their time for socializing and communicating. So changes you meet senior singles using an online dating app like Eharmony are much bigger than when you go to a good old café.
Eharmony mentions that their members in the age category of 50 or higher are the fastest-growing group using their application. This fact is also mentioned in several studies that show that older adults are becoming the largest group that using online dating applications to meet other senior singles.
It’s easier to meet other senior singles online because seniors spend most of their time at home.
Places To Meet Senior Singles
Of course, you can still go the old-fashioned way and meet senior singles offline. Maybe in a bar, at the community center, or at a party. There are still plenty of places left where you can meet senior singles.
However, it might be a good idea to look at the BLS Time Use Survey data again. If you know where and how senior singles spend their time offline, you can figure out where to go and increase your chances of meeting senior singles.
We already know that seniors spend most of their time watching TV. There’s another chart where we can look more in detail at the different activities of seniors.
As you can see in the chart above, leisure and sports activities still count for the biggest time spent a day. But this includes watching TV. Other activities like religious and civic activities, caring for others, and purchasing goods and services are good for a good chunk of their time spent.
Knowing this, we can conclude that the following places are also great places to meet senior singles.
Local Church or Community Center
Seniors, on average, spent half an hour a day on religious, civic, and organizational activities. This is around 3.5 hours a week!
So there you have it. If you can figure out if there are specific activities in your local community center or church for seniors during the day or during the week, make sure to join these activities. It increases your chance of meeting senior singles.
Often local community centers or churches organize specific activities for seniors. Activities vary from game days, talking groups, or religious events. It would be best if you did your research, and then it will be easy for you to meet other seniors.
Doing Volunteer Work
Did you know that many seniors and retirees are doing volunteer work? They choose to do volunteer work to stay connected with their community and to meet other people. So they can stay socially active.
When you do volunteer work, you’ll meet many other people in different age categories. Often volunteer work evolves around community centers. So when you become active in your local community center, you can both start as a volunteer and meet senior singles while helping out in your community.
If you want to read more about volunteer work for seniors and retirees, I recommend reading my article Why Do Retirees Volunteer.
Senior Travel Buddy
When you would like to find a travel buddy to go traveling together you can use the online platform Senior Travel Buddy to find your match. It’s a website that will help you find the right person for your next trip. The cost of accommodation will be shared and you have found yourself a new senior friend. The website is the winner of Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 from the American Society of Travel Advisors. You can start searching for free and when you found your travel buddy you can start chatting to get to know each other.
Senior Club
A senior club or senior citizens club is a great place to meet senior singles. You can google “senior club near me” to see what senior clubs are around in your area. These clubs organize all kinds of activities for seniors which you can check out. And when you’ve found a club with an activity you like to do you’ll meet like-minded seniors with the same interests as you very easily.
Local Sports Club
Sport and Leisure activities are good for the most time spent during the day. Again, most of the time is watching TV when it comes to this older age group. However, many seniors are still active when it comes to sport.
So it’s time to find out where the local seniors go for their weekly sports activities. Swimming is an activity that’s very popular among older adults, so you might want to check out your local swimming pool. Or maybe the local fitness center.
Some sports centers offer specific classes for seniors. You can ask at the local sports center about these classes and join a senior sports class—another great way of meeting other senior singles.
Shopping Center
Yes, that’s right! Grocery shopping or buying goods and services is good for almost one hour a day!
So it’s time to find out when other seniors go to the shopping mall or supermarket. Make sure to go there as well at the same time, and you might bump into your new love while doing groceries! That would be a romantic story, wouldn’t it?!
Visit a Bar or Restaurant
Yes, I also recommend that you can go the old-fashioned way to meet senior singles. It’s still possible to meet someone else at a bar, restaurant or club. You just need to know where to go. According to the Time Use Survey of BLS, the activity eating & drinking counts for 1.5 hours a day of the daily time spent. This time is including going for dinner or drinks outdoors.
So, just like with sports or community activities, you need to find out where other senior singles go for dinner or drinks. If you know which place they hang out, you can also go there—good chance you’ll meet someone interesting.
I don’t mention specific places because I want to point you in a direction to meet senior singles. Specific places like bars, restaurants, sports clubs, community centers all vary per city or village. Thus it depends where you live. However, the activities and average time spent are more or less the same throughout the United States.
What Seniors Look For In A Relationship
When you’re getting older, your perspective on what you look for in life and relationships change. According to this article on Psychology Today, seniors focus more on creating happy moments in their lives. At the age of thirty to fifty, young people are more focused on creating new life goals and planning for their future.
The article mentions that it looks like that when we get older, our perspective and focus change to being more in the present moment en creating positive experiences. It sounds like something everyone is looking for. However, when we get older, these positive experiences focus on peacefulness and serenity or calmness than excitement and joy. More senior people find more happiness in the little things in life, according to Psychology Today.
Many people say seniors can’t experience strong love, mainly because their sexual desire and physical ability are declining with age. The funny thing is that this idea is entirely wrong. Seniors still have their desires, and it’s often that older couples experience stronger love than couples at a young age. Probably because when we’re younger, we often focus on many different things in life. Many younger people in today’s society aren’t capable of living the present moment and can’t focus on what truly matters in their life. This knowledge often comes when we age and take time to reflect on our lives.