Sugar babies: dating trend skyrockets as students rely on rich older partners to fund tertiary lifestyle

Hundreds of University of Queensland students have admitted to using a website to find their own sugar daddies as a way of funding big city luxury living.

More than 500,000 Australian sugar babies fund lavish lifestyles by dating. Image: supplied, Seeking Arrangement.

MORE than half-a-million young Australians are relying on older, richer partners to fund big-city luxury living as the “sugar daddy” dating trend continues to grow.

A new study by dating service Seeking Arrangement revealed 730,000 Australian sugar babies had turned to the website with a large proportion of users being students.

A total of 380 University of Queensland students were among those who admitted to using the website.

“It’s a trend of people leaving the more rural areas and pursuing education in the larger cities who often come to our site because of that,” said Seeking Arrangement spokeswoman, Kimberley De La Cruz.

Gone are the days of cheap beer and bad wine; sugar daddies and sugar mummas are funding fine dining, lavish living and even overseas trips for their younger lovers.

On average, sugar daddies pay $2000 to their partners each month. Picture: Seeking Arrangement.

“The students that we here from, they receive a lot of different perks,” said Ms Del La Cruz.

“Their apartments paid for, nice dining, travel and a lot of living expenses.”

The average sugar daddy pays a monthly allowance $2000 to his partner, and relationships aren’t exclusive.

“Very often our sugar babies date multiple people – especially the ones who travel,” Mrs De La Cruz said.

“As far as what it typically looks like there is an age difference.

“The average age of a sugar baby is 24, and the average age of a sugar daddy is 41.”

The sugar daddy dating trend grew by 4 per cent in 2019 and was most popular with students at the University of Melbourne.

A total of 514 students from Griffith University and 380 from UQ admitted to using Seeking Arrangement.

Overall Australia was the fourth most popular market for the dating app.