Online dating service marketers are missing the boat on mature singles. Few online dating services focus their marketing efforts on single adults in their 40s or beyond. Despite the broad marketing trend towards increasing emphasis on advertising services to the "Baby Boomer" generation, online adult dating services seem to be behind the curve in addressing the growing numbers of single adults in this age range.  Half of all U.S. households are now headed by unmarried adults, 43% of all singles are 45 or older, and nearly two-thirds of single women are 35 or older.

Contrary to what their absence in mainstream marketing might suggest, mature singles have significant discretionary income and a broad range of interests, as recently confirmed in a new study on the U.S. singles market from the Packaged Facts division of MarketResearch.com. Mature adult singles are not, and never have been, just buying anti-aging cosmetics and incontinence products.

Despite what the marketing campaigns of many online dating services might lead one to believe, single Baby Boomers aged 45 to 54 are as likely to use online dating services as 18- to-24-year-olds, and nearly half of those in this age group are interested in starting a new dating relationship. Yet, most online dating services marketing is targeted to young adults, and usually portrays them as attractive, wealthy, and childless urbanites.

The marketing approach of some online dating services seem to express a stereotypical view of mature adult singles as lonely people desperate to get married, when the results of the Packaged Facts study suggest that most mature adult singles prefer to view their unmarried state as a choice, rather than a temporary and undesirable situation.

Some other key points about mature adult singles from the study:

Singles are twice as likely as married adults to regularly patronize bars and nightclubs. Suprisingly, single parents are just as likely as childless singles to have engage these activities.

Nearly three quarters of singles are available to marketers online. Mature adult singles are more likely than marrieds to use the internet for social and entertainment functions.

Baby Boomers tend to respond more to traditional media, albeit with untraditional messages. Boomers also want special treatment in sales and service transactions.

In sum, there appears to be a broad and mostly untapped population of single mature adults who would be interested and responsive to positive online marketing campaigns for adult dating services that cater to their more mature tastes and interests.