Melbourne tops list of students using sugar daddy dating sites
Three Melbourne universities are featured in a top 10 list of students using sugar daddy dating sites to fund their education journey.
VIC News
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The University of Melbourne has topped a list of students enrolled on the world’s largest “sugar daddy” dating site.
The site, SeekingArrangement, has 185,000 Australian “sugar baby” students on its books, who want to hook up with successful business men and women to help fund their tertiary education journey.
According to figures released by the dating site, the University of Melbourne had the most sugar babies, with 554 students registered on the site, followed by Griffith University in Queensland (514), and the University of Sydney (478).
Melbourne’s RMIT was fifth, with 410 students, and Deakin University sixth, with 398.
Kimberly De La Cruz, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas-based dating site, said the Australian statistics were very specific compared to other regions, and based mainly on economics and cost of living.
She said: “In Australia, with young people, what we have found to be the trend is, a lot of these students are moving away from rural areas into the bigger cities where education is offered.
“That costs a lot of money, so they’re looking to date someone who is successful, and who can help support them through that journey.”
Ms De La Cruz said: “Whenever we find larger populations of student sugar babies, we take it upon ourselves to look at the economics, and what’s going on down there. What the Australia sugar babies have told us is, it’s the cost of living there.
“(University) is hard enough as it is. It’s stressful. A lot of students have to work two jobs as well as going to their classes, then they have to find time to study.
“If they can find someone to be in a relationship with, who can alleviate some of that financial stress, why wouldn’t they want to?
“That’s really appealing and helpful to young people who are trying to get a leg up in the world.”
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But Ms De La Cruz said there are still stigmas attached to sugar daddy dating sites.
“Within our community, those definitions mean one thing and they’re clear cut. We know who we are. It’s positive power-dating,” she said.
“Outwardly, we do understand people have misconceptions that it’s prostitution, escorting, things like that — none of which we would use to describe ourselves.”
Ms De La Cruz said the Australian numbers reflect a wider “societal shift” of people wanting to “elevate their dating pool.”
She said: “They no longer want to settle for the guy who lives at home in his mum’s basement. They want someone who is successful, who can offer them travel, mentorship. It’s a very different lifestyle.”
The site said the average age of a sugar daddy is 42, with an annual income of $250,000. The average age of a sugar baby is 24.