Dating calculator
Three quick, honest calculators in one place: the acceptable age range, how many people to date before you commit, and how big your realistic dating pool is — with the maths shown and every number sourced.
Acceptable age range
The classic “half your age, plus seven” rule of thumb.
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This is a social rule of thumb, not a law or a moral limit — plenty of happy couples fall outside it. The only hard line is the local age of consent, so we never show a minimum below 18.
How many people should you date?
The “optimal stopping” rule from probability theory, applied to dating.
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This is the “secretary problem”: for a pool of N, you learn your taste on the first ~37% (N ÷ e), then pick the next one better than all so far. It is a model, not advice — real people aren’t interchangeable and you can often go back. Based on the optimal-stopping literature (Ferguson, 1989).
Your realistic dating pool
A rough estimate of how many single adults fit your age filter — from official population statistics.
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How this estimate is built (and its limits)
We take the official population in your age band, keep the share that are single (not married and not cohabiting), and split by sex. It is a ballpark of people who exist — not a count of who is on the apps, single-and-looking, or anywhere near you. Treat it as an order of magnitude.
Sources:
Now the part that actually matters
How these calculators work
The age-range figure is the “half your age plus seven” heuristic: the youngest is half your age plus seven, the oldest is double the amount your age exceeds seven. It has no scientific basis — it’s a conversational sanity check.
The optimal-stopping figure comes from the secretary problem: if you meet candidates one at a time and can’t easily go back, the strategy that most often lands the very best is to reject the first ~37% and then take the next record-beater. Dating breaks the “can’t go back” assumption, so treat it as intuition, not instruction.
The dating-pool figure multiplies the official population in your chosen age band by the share of adults who are single and by the sex split. Every input is linked below with its year.
Frequently asked questions
What is the “dating age rule”?
A rule of thumb that the youngest person you should date is half your age plus seven. For a 30-year-old that’s 22; for a 40-year-old, 27. It’s a social gauge, not a law — the only real limit is the age of consent.
Is the 37% rule real maths?
Yes — it’s the classic solution to the “optimal stopping” or secretary problem. The catch is its assumptions (you see people one at a time, rank them cleanly, and can’t go back), which real dating only loosely fits. Use it as a nudge to stop over-searching, not as a formula.
How accurate is the dating-pool number?
It’s an order-of-magnitude estimate from national statistics, not a headcount of available singles. It ignores geography, orientation, who’s actually looking, and who’d be interested back. The method and every source are shown above.
Do you store what I enter?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere or saved.