Give statistics on how the ideal attractive age changes for men and women as they age
Executive summary
Surveys and large-scale dating-data analyses show systematic but asymmetric patterns: women’s preferred partner ages tend to track their own age (with older women accepting relatively younger men), while men of nearly every age show a strong relative preference for women in their early-to-mid 20s—though behaviorally men often message closer to their own age for longer-term matches [1] [2] [3] [4]. Experimental and computational studies of facial aging add that perceived attractiveness declines with age for both sexes, but the decline is steeper for women in many measures, complicating how "ideal age" operates in real choice [5] [6].
1. What people mean by “ideal attractive age” matters — and studies measure different things
Some research asks raters to pick the most attractive age from photos or profiles, other work records who users message or "like" on dating platforms, and large surveys ask about acceptable age ranges; those different methods produce related but not identical results, so claims about a single “ideal age” must be qualified by method [2] [4] [1].
2. Women’s ideal partner age shifts modestly as they age: preferences track own age and broaden downward
A cross‑cultural survey of 17,254 single heterosexual women found negligible age effects on traits like kindness or attractiveness but did find older women more willing to accept younger men and reducing acceptance for older men — overall age effects on desired partner attributes were small except for rising preference for confidence-assertiveness with age [1]. Other studies similarly show that women tend to prefer men near their own age, and as women age they often lower the youngest acceptable age for partners while not dramatically changing other attribute weights [1] [3].
3. Men’s stated and observed preferences concentrate on women in their 20s across ages, but context matters
Analyses of large dating datasets (e.g., Christian Rudder’s Dataclysm and OKCupid data) report that men of nearly every age are most attracted to women in their early 20s, a pattern that appears repeatedly in platform data, although in messaging behavior men more often contact women closer to their own age when seeking long‑term relationships [2] [4]. Academic reviews also summarize that heterosexual men—irrespective of their own age—show strong attraction to women in their 20s, even if few men are exclusively focused on very young or very old partners [3].
4. Perceived attractiveness declines with age for both sexes, but women’s decline is steeper in many measures
Computational face‑aging work and empirical judgments find that facial attractiveness declines as faces age and that this decline tends to be more pronounced for female faces in several studies; one machine‑learning study reported a mean decline for women of roughly 10.4 points per decade and a sharper drop after 40, while network analyses found men’s ratings changed more strongly with face age [5] [6]. Those perception effects