Introducing vaxi-dating

In partnership with Inner Circle

The pandemic, the restrictions and the precautions people are putting in place, and abiding by, to keep both themselves and their loved ones safe have been key topics of conversation for the past year.

COVID-19 has thrown a rather gigantic spanner in the works for anyone looking to find love. With the protocol of lockdowns and tiers to navigate. In the pre-lockdown world the biggest annoyances those in the dating world encountered were ghosting and incompatible dates. Fast forward through the lost year of 2020 and the dating world is a whole new landscape.

Digital dating and long courtships before meeting became the new normal. With the word on everyone's lips, vaccinations.

Dating app, Inner Circle has found that 71% of Brit's would reconsider dating someone if they refused to have the COVID-19 vaccine. Introducing a whole new dating term: vaxi-dating.

Charly Lester, dating app expert for Inner Circle shared, “Vaxi-dating is likely to pop into singles; lives over the next few months, many without even knowing it. It’s not necessarily seen as a political statement as we’ve seen with social justice badges on profiles, but more so a practical safety concern. It’s really about sharing the same values as another potential match and staying safe.”

Whilst two thirds of the singles surveyed (65%) shared that they weren’t actively dating at the moment and for those who were, 46% were keeping it strictly digital. Whilst 78% plan to get the vaccination as soon as it becomes available to them,

David Vermeulen, CEO and founder of Inner Circle, shared: “It’s clear that the vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel for many single people. In January we saw a 60% increase in our users talking about the vaccine with their matches compared to December. These conversations are now evolving, and the vaccination continues to be a hot topic. By summer we hope to see singles integrating back into a normal dating life."

Inner Circle puts the idea of 'meeting your match' at the core of everything it does. With each profile screened and filtered to ensure each members are real people, serious about dating. Personalised profiles enable users to show off values, interests and let singles find like-minded matches. Pre-Covid, Inner Circle filtered matches based off mutual events, tips and tricks on the best places to go help singles actually meet in real life.

But what does meeting in real life look like these days?

Well, almost half (45%) shared with Inner Circle that they'd consider mentioning they’d been vaccinated on their dating profile. So we may expect to see “Vaccinated: ☑” appearing on dating apps before long.