Whether it leads to ghosting shame or a ’til death promise, dating will cost you. Just how much depends on three things: location, location, and… you get the idea.

When most of us think about relationships, we think of the big moments—the first “I love you,” the proposal, the wedding—in other words, the opportunities to step into a nice, fitted suit or tux. To reach these milestones you have to start somewhere, and for many, the beginning is a first date.

An initial date can look different depending on your interests (which are hopefully somewhat aligned with your date’s) and can be as formal or casual as you’d like. Regardless, most of us would be interested to know if it’s tougher to meet people, go on dates, and thus cultivate a love life in our home city compared to others. It turns out that it does vary depending on where you live—at least in terms of cost.

With this in mind, we decided to run the numbers to find the cost of a typical date across each major city of the United States. We based our analysis on a set of assumptions of how to define a standard date in order to get consistent data. Our classic date is dinner and a movie, plus transportation and drinks.

Table of Contents

i. The Most Expensive Cities for A Date

ii. The Least Expensive Cities for A Date

iii. The Most and Least Expensive Cities for Each Element of A Date

iv. The Average Cost of a Date in Each U.S. City

v. Methodology

i. The Most Expensive Cities for A Date

The city that never sleeps is also the one that doesn’t give your paycheck a break. New York, NY topped the list among all other U.S. cities at $155.78, followed by San Francisco, CA ($144.94) and San Jose, CA ($141.55). For many Americans, especially the ones that live in these cities, the top 10 probably doesn’t come as a shock. However, we were surprised to see Miami, FL ($127.18) and Sacramento, CA ($123.34) on this list, especially since they beat out cities like San Diego, CA ($121.97) and Chicago, IL ($119.61).

As shown on the map, all of these cities are along the coast or are close to it. Most of them are also large business and/or technology hubs, where the average worker earns significantly more than the median salary of the United States overall.

ii. The Least Expensive Cities for A Date

Our study shows that city-dwellers in Oklahoma are able to go on dates for the least amount of money—it’ll only set them back $87.85, which is 44% cheaper than a date in New York City. That’s also a full $12 cheaper than the next city, Milwaukee, WI, which comes in at $95.00. Richmond, VA is right behind at $97.96.



The cities found on this list aren’t the largest in the U.S. For the most part, we’re looking at the next tier down (in terms of size) after the likes of New York City and Los Angeles, which puts these results into perspective.



iii. The Most and Least Expensive Cities for Each Element of A Date

Considering that our total cost calculation included a number of elements, we also wanted to see how cities stacked up for each individual one. It’s very apparent why New York, NY is the most expensive since the Big Apple is the priciest for three out of four parts of a typical date. San Francisco, CA is most expensive for dinner and a tip.



The cheapest cities for each element show more variation. Atlanta, GA is the least expensive for rideshare trips ($19.71), while the bill for dinner and a tip will be the smallest in Oklahoma City, OK ($37.20). Milwaukee, WI is apparently the best city to see a movie on the cheap ($19.00), and Cleveland, OH is the cheapest for a pair of drinks ($8.08).



iv. The Average Cost of a Date in Each U.S. City

Sometimes your city doesn’t rank in the ‘best’ or ‘worst’ and that’s okay. With that in mind, we wanted to show how all 50 cities stacked up, even the ones that ended up in the middle of the pack. A general trend you can see in these results is that relatively smaller southern and midwestern cities tend to be towards the middle, or on the cheaper end for a date, while large metropolitan areas, particularly those near the coast, tend to be the priciest.

v. Methodology

Our analysis is based on a set of assumptions to define a standard date, which allowed us to get consistent data for each city. This includes dinner, a movie, ride shares, and alcoholic drinks.

The rideshare cost was calculated using Uber’s published rates for each city, based on the average length of a rideshare trip (6.4 mi, 27.0 MPH, 14.22 min). The costs of a basic dinner for two, movie tickets, and alcoholic beverages comes from Expatistan, a widely cited resource for local costs of living.

A first date is an exciting occasion (even if it’s a little pricier where you live). The best case scenario is that it leads to a long-term relationship with all of the big milestones. Even still, it’s always fun to look back to where it all began. But if it didn’t end well, hopefully it began in Oklahoma.

