When online dating, women want younger men: report

While it’s been long thought that men desire younger women and women desire older men, new data suggests that women are opting for younger men when online dating.

According to a report in Time magazine, numbers from various dating sites consistently show that both men and women opt for younger partners. AYI (Are You Interested?) dating website and app helps users find potential partners by allowing access to their Facebook profile, with people matched based on shared interests. Users who like what they see can "fave" the profile, or "skip" if they’re not interested.

AYI pulled data from its 68 million downloads and 20 million Facebook profiles, focusing on one million 'approved' matches among a group of 35,942 users ages 30 to 49, Time reported. Women were five times more likely to show interest in a man five years younger than one who was five years older.

However, among the 26,434 men aged 30 to 49, 42 percent said they wouldn’t consider dating an older women -- but if contacted by an older women, he wouldn’t necessarily turn her down. Men are only 22 percent less likely to respond to an older woman than a younger woman if she initiates contact.

A 2008 study, cited by Time, published in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly found that women who are 10 or more years older than their partner report more relationship satisfaction than women who are with men their own age or younger.

Famous older woman/younger man couplings include Julianne Moore and Bart Freundl, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, and Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon.