Why adults look for new friends: answers from a sample of 179 Vairi members
Vairi Research. Published 23 September 2026. Updated 12 October 2026. Sample: 179 people, 18 March to 11 October 2026.
Right after signing up, new Vairi members are asked what brings them here. We looked at the answers from a sample of 179 members who joined between 18 March and 11 October 2026. Moving somewhere new came up more than anything else.
Updated 12 October 2026: the sample grows from 151 to 179 people and now runs to 11 October. The order of the answers did not change; every share is recounted.
Key findings
- 47% (85 of 179) picked ‘Meeting people in a new city’, more than any other answer.
- 60% (108 of 179) picked ‘Meaningful new connections’, ‘Thoughtful conversations’, or both.
- 11% (20 of 179) picked ‘A life transition’.
- Among members aged 40 and over, 25% picked the new-city answer. In both younger age groups it was more than half.
The question
The screen asks “What brings you here?” and tells people to pick at least one answer and at most two. There are seven answers, always shown in the same order. 119 of the 179 people (66%) picked two, so the shares below add up to more than 100%.
| Answer, as shown on screen | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting people in a new city | 85 | 47% |
| Meaningful new connections | 69 | 39% |
| Thoughtful conversations | 56 | 31% |
| Unexpected encounters | 30 | 17% |
| Sharing culture and interests | 20 | 11% |
| A life transition | 20 | 11% |
| Exchanging ideas or projects | 10 | 6% |
| Romantic curiosity (removed in July 2026) | 8 | 4% |
Sorted by popularity. On screen the order is: new city, thoughtful conversations, ideas or projects, unexpected encounters, meaningful connections, culture and interests, life transition.
Moving city comes first
Almost half the group picked ‘Meeting people in a new city’. It is also the first answer on the screen, and first answers tend to get picked a little more often just for being first, so the real share is probably somewhat below 47%. It would need a large boost to explain the gap, though. The next answer is eight points behind.
The small print under that answer reads ‘People navigating a new place or chapter’, so some people may have meant a new stage of life rather than a new address. The data can’t tell those apart. Most people paired it with something else: 32 of the 85 chose it on its own.
People asked for depth
‘Meaningful new connections’ sits fifth on the screen and still came second, with 39%. ‘Thoughtful conversations’ came third with 31%. Between them, 108 people (60%) picked at least one of the two. Networking was rare: ‘Exchanging ideas or projects’ got 6%.
The answer changes after 40
159 people in the sample also gave a date of birth when they joined, which lets us split the answers by age.
| Age | People | New city | Meaningful connections | Thoughtful conversations | Unexpected encounters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18-29 | 78 | 56% | 27% | 31% | 15% |
| 30-39 | 57 | 53% | 49% | 37% | 12% |
| 40 and over | 24 | 25% | 38% | 25% | 29% |
Under 40, more than half of each age group picked the new-city answer. Over 40 it was a quarter, and ‘Unexpected encounters’ rose to 29%, about twice the rate in either younger group. People in their thirties were the most likely to ask for meaningful connections (49%).
The over-40 group is 24 people. That is enough to see a difference and too few to be sure how big it is. For the full age breakdown, see who looks for new friends online.
How we counted
- Sample: 179 members who created a Vairi account between 18 March and 11 October 2026 and answered the question. Staff and test accounts are excluded. If someone answered more than once, we used their most recent answer.
- The question: “What brings you here?”, with seven fixed answers in a fixed order and a choice of one or two. An eighth answer, ‘Romantic curiosity’, was offered until 5 July 2026 and then removed. The 8 people who picked it before then are still counted.
- Age: worked out from the date of birth given at sign-up, which people type in themselves and we do not verify. It means age on the day they joined.
- Limits: these are people who chose to try a friendship app, so they are not a random sample of adults. Location is not reliable for the earlier part of the sample, so the figures are not split by city.
- Privacy: every figure is a count across a group of at least 10 people. No answer is linked to a name, and nothing here comes from anyone’s conversations.