If you’re on an online dating site and want to meet gay men or lesbians into soccer, England is your choice, a study finds.
England has the most gay male soccer fans on dating sites, followed by Denmark, Sweden, Australia and Switzerland, with the U.S. seventh. For gay women, England is followed by Spain, France, Australia and Germany, with the U.S. finishing 11th.
These numbers were crunched by Dating Scout, an online review site of dating websites and apps, including those catering specifically to gays and lesbians, or mainstream sites that also have areas for those seeking same-sex partners.
The site analyzed 22 million photos of dating profiles on sites such as Tinder from 13 countries. “Our technical developers took dating profile pictures from publicly available sources, and then analyzed the pictures anonymously with artificial intelligence,” a company spokesperson told Outsports. Factors including people wearing soccer jerseys or with a soccer theme in photos were considered in the survey timed to the World Cup.
Just because someone is wearing a soccer jersey in an online profile doesn’t automatically mean they are fans, though I would agree there is a high probability of such. And with soccer being less popular in the U.S. than other sports, the lower ranking for Americans versus soccer-mad places such as England makes sense. The study found that gay men and lesbians make up 30% of online U.S. daters wearing a soccer jersey in a profile photo.
What doesn’t make sense is the study showing Italy has the most gay male goalkeepers and Denmark the most gay referees. There is no way that can be determined simply by looking at photos, but it is good for a chuckle.
