Cheating Infidelity Statistics USA 2024
While infidelity may be a sensitive subject, it’s one that many of us face. In the US, studies revealed that in 2021, around 21% of respondents admitted to cheating on their partner, and this is nothing new.
Since the 1960s, infidelity has reportedly been on the rise, and it’s not set to disappear any time soon. To find out what America's attitude to infidelity currently looks like, we analyzed data from Polly to see who has cheated, who hasn’t, who they’re cheating with, where they are doing so, whether marriages have survived and why, and other interesting demographics.
Polly’s data surveyed a total number of 15,586,105 people in the US over the course of the year, ending on the 15th of May, 2024. Here’s what the statistics reveal.
Index
- Nearly 75% of people have cheated
- Over 60% of affairs are with married men
- More than half of Americans cheat with people they meet at social events
- One third of people cheated because of personal insecurities
- Over 70% of marriages survive cheating
- 64% of people cite commitment to working through as the reason their marriage survived
- 45-54 Year olds cheat the most
- Texas has the highest number of affairs
- Women admit to having the most affairs
- Average income earners have the most affairs
- About the data
Nearly 75% of people have cheated
Polly’s data on who has and has not cheated surveyed 15,586,105 people across the US for a year. The results below clearly show that just about three-quarters of those in a relationship admit to being unfaithful.
According to Polly, 74.9% of people admit to infidelity, which highlights just how common it is in the US. In contrast, only 25.1% say that they haven’t cheated on their partner. However, this is the opposite of statistics compiled by YouGov, which stated that 63% of Americans in monogamous relationships say they have never cheated, while only 33% admit to engaging in physical or emotional affairs or both. These statistics don’t quite align, though, as when the same YouGov test group was asked if they had been cheated on, 54% said they had.
Polly’s data is based on social media responses and engagement of real people, and it may reflect a more accurate view as people often post anonymously or under a pseudonym and are more likely to admit to this type of behavior if they have less risk of being caught.
Over 60% of affairs are with married men
When asked who they had an affair with, Poly’s data revealed that married men topped the trends. Let’s unpack the graph below to see who else people are having affairs with.
To find out who Americans were having affairs with, Polly’s data sampled responses from 2,090,766 over the year-long period. Topping the list were people admitting they had affairs with married men at a whopping 66.3%. Far behind this were those saying they had an affair with their best friend's partner at only 15.9%. This is a difference of 50.4%, proving married men are by far the top contenders.
9.3% of people admitted that they had an affair with their neighbor, while only 6.% said they cheated with their boss. Considering that Forbes found that 40% of people have cheated with a colleague, this is surprisingly low - although colleague and boss do differ somewhat in status. Last but not least, only 2.4% of people said they had an affair with a celebrity, which makes sense as these affairs are risky and often high profile.
More than half of Americans cheat with people they meet at social events
Polly’s data based on 2,090,766 over the year-long period shows that social events are the most popular places for meeting affair partners. The graph below explains more about where people are meeting those they cheat with.
58.5% of people engaged say they cheated with someone they met at a social event. While the exact events are not defined, they are likely organized by other friends or colleagues and based on the following two statistics, do not include pubs or clubs. Clubs are the second most popular place to meet someone to cheat with, at 20.5%, followed by pubs at 16.9%.
Despite the large number of people who cheat with others in the workplace, conferences only come in at 4.1%. When you consider that 85% of affairs in the workplace start when an affair partner is traveling for work, this level of engagement is very low.
One third of people cheated because of personal insecurities
Based on the responses of 2,090,766 people, Polly identified the main reasons people in the US cheat. We’ve unpacked what this graph reveals.
Personal insecurities just top the list of reasons, with just over a third of people (35.5%) admitting this was their reason. Just behind this is emotional dissatisfaction, with 33.1%. There is then quite a drop downwards, with only 11.6% of people saying that they cheated due to relationship dissatisfaction.
Desiring novelty is low on the list, too, at 6.6%, followed by a lack of communication at 6.1% and a lack of commitment at 5.1%. Interestingly, temptation registers very low, with engagement of only 2.1%. Based on these stats, it seems emotion plays a major role in the reasons why people are cheating—whether it's emotion based on insecurities or a lack of emotional fulfillment in the relationship.
These reasons tend to align with other studies, with research from Selterman, Garcia & Tsapelas showing that an overwhelming majority of participants cheated because of a lack of love, low self-esteem, need for variety, low commitment, and sexual desire.
Over 70% of marriages survive cheating
According to those surveyed by Polly, infidelity does not always mean the end of a marriage. The graph below reveals the survival rates for 2,028,541 Americans who kept a ring on it despite straying.
The CDC reveals that in the US, there are 2.4 divorces per 1,000 people. However, the leading cause of divorce is not infidelity; according to the IDFA, it is basic incompatibility. Incompatibility is rated by 43% as the main cause, and infidelity only comes in at 28%. Polly’s data correlates with the fact that infidelity doesn’t have to be the end of a marriage, with 70.2% of people saying their marriage survived cheating and only 29.8% saying it didn’t. The 29.8% very much aligns with the IDFA’s 28% stat for infidelity being the reason for splitting up.
64% of people cite commitment to working through as the reason their marriage survived
Of the 2,028,541 people surveyed, commitment to working through issues emerged as the main reason people stay together. Here’s what else the data says about why marriages survive an affair.
With engagement levels of 64.4%, committing to working out issues is the glue that keeps marriages together after an affair. This far exceeds communication, which gets only 12.4% engagement, and forgiveness, which 12.2% of people say is the reason their union survived. The support from friends and family gets minimal engagement at 6.3%. But what is really surprising is that therapy only contributed 2.8% and counseling a meager 2%, especially when you consider couples in therapy now have closer to a 75% success rate of recovering from traumatic past events - of which infidelity can be one.
45-54 Year olds cheat the most
By assessing 2,090,766 people’s responses, Polly determined that the 45-54-year-old age group has the highest number of cheaters. Here’s how all the age groups stack up.
Coming in nearly 4% higher than the 55-64 age group at 17.7%, Polly found that the highest number of cheaters were aged between 45 and 54 (21.6%). In third place were those 65 and older, with 16.6%. As the age groups get younger, the number of people who cheat decreases, revealing that the older people get, the more they stray.
35–44-year-olds had engagement levels of 16%, 25-34, 15.7%, and 25 and below had the fewest number of cheaters, at 12.6%.
Many studies match these age brackets, at least in that the older people get, the more prone they are to cheating. However, research has also indicated that people are twice as likely to cheat at age 39, which has been named the “danger age.” Ages ending in 9 (e.g., 49, 59, etc.) are also more prone to cheating.
Texas has the highest number of affairs
With data assessing 2,090,766 people across the US, we can see which regions have the highest number of affairs. Let’s take a closer look at what the graph reveals.
Texas has the second biggest population in the US, topped only by Califonia. But Polly’s data shows that Texas beats California when it comes to affairs by just over double.
Texas takes the top spot, with 17.8% of people admitting to affairs, followed by Massachusetts (14.1%) and North Carolina with 11.1%. Then comes California at 8.8%, followed right behind by Georgia with 8.7%.
The other 23 regions are ranked as follows:
- 6th: Tennessee with 6.8%
- 7th: Illinois with 5.9%
- 8th: New York with 5.6%
- 9th: Ohio with 4.5%
- 10th: Florida with 4.2%
- 11th: Puerto Roc with 3.3%
- 12th: Michigan with 2.1%
- 13th: Missouri with 1.9%
- 14th: Pennsylvania with 1.2%.
All the states in 15th to 23rd place have extremely low numbers below 1%. In order, there’s Idaho with 0.7%, Colorado at 0.5%, Kentucky and Oklahoma both at 0.4%, Minnesota and Louisiana at 0.2%, and the District of Columbia with 0.1% in last place.
Women admit to having the most affairs
Poly’s data on gender encompasses responses from 2,090,766 people in the US. Based on the findings, women have far more affairs than men.
When it comes to having affairs, women beat men by over 50%. Polly’s graph shows that 76.9% of those surveyed who had affairs were women compared to just 23.1% of men. This differed from many common studies that cite men as being more likely to stray, including statistics that say that 20 to 25% cheat compared to 10 to 15% of women.
However, it’s important to note that these statistics change depending on age gaps. Women are more likely to cheat between the ages of 18 and 29. Men soon catch up and remain ahead from ages 30 to 45+. Women then take the lead again after age 60, with men passing them again in their 70s.
Average income earners have the most affairs
By assessing income levels from 2,090,766 participants, Polly was able to determine that average earners were having the most affairs. Here’s how income stacks up when compared to the percentage of affairs.
The average income in the US is currently around $59,384, putting those in this income bracket (40,000 to 80,000) firmly in the lead with the highest number of affairs at 48.9%. Those with the lowest income in the study of under 40,000 are next, at 26%. In contrast, those with higher than average income have lower engagement levels and, therefore, fewer affairs. The 80,000 to 120,000 income bracket accounts for 14.6% of affairs, followed by those in the 120,000 to 200,000 bracket at 8.8%. Those earning in the highest bracket of 2000,000 to 500,000 have the least affairs, with a percentage of just 1.7%.
Whether it's a physical or emotional affair, infidelity is rife across the US. These statistics have shed light on how people are behaving, and they also prove that cheating does not end a marriage - in fact, it’s more than survivable.
About the data
The data used in this article was sourced from Polly, who created independent samples of a total of 15,585,105 people in the US posting on X, Reddit, and TikTok. The data spans a year, up until 15 May 2024. Responses were collected and analyzed to produce outcomes within a 90% confidence interval and 5% margin of error. The engagement levels recorded estimated how many people in the US were participating.
The demographics in the study were determined using many features, including the participant’s name, location, and self-disclosed description. Privacy was preserved using k-anonymity and differential privacy. All of Polly’s results used here are based on what people in the US describe online. Direct questions are not posed to those in the sample.
Written by:
Lois Anders