According to the United States Census Bureau, the proportion of single person households in the United States rose to 27.8% of all households. What's more, since the early 1980s, the number of people working more than 45 hours per week has increased by 76% and only 7% of people still work 9 to 5. More single people are working longer hours, leaving less time for socialising.

Los Angeles Rabbi Yaacov Deyo invented speed dating in 1998 as a way for marriage focused young Jewish singles to meet. Speed Dating has since spread throughout the world as a revolutionary way for busy single people to meet each other without any of the stigma associated with traditional dating agencies. In the United States it is now an enormously popular phenomenon with more than a quarter of New York bars now hosting a speed dating night at least once a week!

The basic idea is that an equal number of men and women attend a venue; each person spends between 5 and 10 minutes chatting to each member of the opposite sex, and then decides which people they would like to see again. The organizers facilitate an exchange of details if there is a match.

The original format involved men sitting along one side of a long table with the women lined up along the other, every few minutes the men shifting along one space. Most speed dating services still operate according to this production line approach.