Internet Dating most Popular with Europeans: Study

European internet users are far more engaged in online dating than their North American counter parts, according to research revealed on Monday. Up to 18 percent, or over 38 million of European internet users visited online personals in July, slightly higher than the 17 percent of North American visitors who visited during the same period. The study conducted by market research firm, comScore Networks, shows that European visitors viewed an average of 310 pages per visitor in July – 44 percent more pages than their North American counterparts, however.

The growth rates for users of personals sites in North America and Europe are also remarkably different, as the online personals audience in North America remained flat compared to last July, while the personals audience in Europe grew 26 percent.

"In North America, large online personals sites like Match.com and Yahoo! Personals still lead the rankings in terms of reach, but their growth rates have slowed in the past year," commented Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe. "In Europe, more specialist local sites such as Meetic in France and iLove in Germany have become successful, experiencing double-digit growth and dominating the category in their home countries."