Relationships outside an appropriate age range

People tend to marry or partner with those closer to their age. However, some venture outside the typical range.

A while back, xkcd defined a standard creepiness rule that one should not date their age divided by 2, plus 7. For example, someone who is 30 years old can date someone between 22 and 46. It gets weird beyond that range.

We calculated the potential dating pool based on this rule already, but with a certain former NFL coach making certain relationship choices, I had a dumb curiosity: how common is it for people to partner with others outside their range?

Partnered households in the creepy range peak at middle age

Based on 2019-2023 American Community Survey data, only 0.7% of partnered households fell into to creepy territory. But it changes by age.

This only covers partners who are living together. I imagine a shift if we could look at dating overall, but I suspect the shape of the distributions look similar. And while the percentages are small, the total still sums to about half a million households, so it’s not unheard of.

The heart wants what it wants.