There is a decline in the popularity of mail order brides—according to Google Trends, people nowadays googled this term less than 10 years ago, and it was much more popular 20 years ago, in 2004-2005. However, there are still tens of thousands of those interested in this kind of international relationship.
The problem here is that there are many stereotypes and myths about mail brides and this industry. For example, a lot of people still think that most mail order brides are 18-20 years old, while this is absolutely not true, especially when it comes to Asian countries. Here, we’re going to bust all those myths and tell you all the truth about mail brides. To do this, we performed a large-scale analysis of more than 48,000 female profiles on the best mail order bride websites.
Most popular countries and devices
According to Google Trends, the term “mail order bride” is most popular in the US (66% of those who google this team are from the United States) and less popular in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. However, French and British people are also interested in international dating; they just google “mail brides” instead of “mail order brides.”
It’s also interesting that the absolute majority of those using mail order bride platforms are mobile users—mobile makes up 73.61% of traffic while desktop has a 24.38% share (and tablet makes only 2% of it).
Now, let’s be more specific about mail order brides.
The most popular countries are Ukraine, China, and Colombia
There are three top mail order bride countries—Ukraine, China, and Colombia. 38.4% of all the mail order brides are from Ukraine, 31.51% are from China, and 11.96% are from Colombia. This is not surprising, considering that these are also some of the top countries when it comes to the number of K-1 visas.
Such countries as Russia (4.16%), Vietnam (2.64%), and Venezuela (1.91%) are also quite popular. The most popular regions are Eastern Europe (44.7% of brides), Asia (39.6%), and South America (14.6%), while the least popular ones are Africa (0.1%) and Oceania (0.05% of mail order brides).
The most popular cities for mail order brides are, in turn, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv (Ukraine), Medellin (Colombia), Moscow (Russia), and Beijing (China).
The average age of a mail order bride is 31.9 years old
This is one of those stereotypes we mentioned before—a lot of people think that the average mail order bride is in her early twenties, and that’s far from the truth. In reality, the average age of mail order brides is 31.9 years old.
In China, the average mail order bride age is 35.2, which is one of the highest results and pretty typical for Asia—in Korea, for example, the average age is 36.5 years, and in Japan, it’s 35.5 years. The brides from Southeast Asia are slightly younger—in Thailand, for example, the average mail order bride age is 27.4 years old.
As for Eastern Europe, the average age of a Ukrainian mail order bride is 31.4 years old, and for Poland, Belarus, and Russia, the average age is lower (31, 27.3, and 28.9 years old, respectively). Speaking of which, Belarus has the lowest average mail bride age. And in Latin America, the average age of a bride is 30.7 years old.
Most mail order brides have never been married
The most common marital status on mail order bride websites is “not married”—more than 37,000 of them have never been married (the total number of brides’ profiles we analyzed is 48,479). Around 10,000 of the brides are divorced, 878 of them are widowed, and 36 of them are still married (maybe they are looking for a friend, not for a serious relationship).
It’s also interesting that the percentage of those who have never been married is the highest in Latin America (90.55%), while in Eastern Europe and Asia, it’s 77.28% and 71.53% respectively.
69% of women there have no children
69.17% of the female accounts we analyzed (almost 48,000) had the “no children” box checked. 23.86% of the women have 1 child, and 5.22% of them have 2 children. Among those who have more than 2 children, the absolute majority have 3, and only one mail order bride said she had “5 or more” children.
It’s also easy to see how this correlates with the percentage of those who get married to American citizens and move to the US with their children from a previous relationship. Thus, there were 21,351 K-1 visas issued to brides and 3,441 K-2 visas issued to their children in 2022, which means 16.11% of those entering the country on a K-1 visa had children in their country.
60% of mail order brides are Christian
The most common mail order bride religion is Christianity. Thus, 60.23% of the brides are Christian, which includes all the branches: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican. Almost 1/3 of the brides (32.44%) are not religious, and the number of Buddhist and Islam mail order brides is extremely low (0.72% and 0.11%, respectively).
These numbers are easy to explain—the most popular mail bride countries are Ukraine (most Ukrainians identify themselves as Orthodox), Colombia (Roman Catholics), and China (that’s where 32.44% of non-religious brides come from).
20% of them are advanced English speakers
The language barrier is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to an international relationship. However, dating mail order brides is not as challenging in this regard as going to Kyiv, Beijing, or Medellin and trying to find a fluent speaker there.
Thus, 1 out of 5 mail order brides have an Advanced level of English, 4.05% of the brides have a native speaker level (that’s what they say), and 2.28% of the brides have a “good” level of English.
The absolute majority of the brides have either an Intermediate (44.99%) or a Beginner (21.23%) level. It’s also important to mention that Asian brides are generally more skilled in English—thus, more than half of them have an Advanced level. Most brides in Eastern Europe and Latin America are not as good at English.
The most common body type is “slim”
The absolute majority (14,000 out of 48,000) of brides have a slim body type. The second and third most popular types are “average” and “athletic,” while there are only a few hundred brides who checked the “big & beautiful” box while creating an account.
Mail order brides do not smoke or drink alcohol
Well, some of them do, but more than 98% of them are non-smokers (48,169 out of 48,797), and the absolute majority of those who smoke are social smokers (569 out of 628).
As for drinking, more than half of them (26,084) do not drink alcohol at all, while around 29% of the brides (14,279) say they are “social” drinkers, which stands for rare, casual alcohol consumption in a social setting or on a special occasion. Only 37 (less than 0.1%) of the brides consume alcohol “frequently.”
63.22% of the brides have a university degree
Another popular stereotype about mail brides is that they are uneducated, and that’s totally false—63.22% of the mail order brides have a university degree, and 28.79% of the brides have a college degree. But that’s not all—2.67% of the brides have checked a “Master,” “Bachelor,” or a “Doctorate” box when creating an account, which means this should be added to the previously mentioned number.
In total, it makes 94.68%, which means only 5.32% of mail order brides don’t have a college/university degree. The highest percentage of brides with a university degree is in Eastern Europe (85%), and the lowest is in Latin America (45%).
The most common occupations for mail order brides are manager and teacher
The most common occupation for brides is a teacher, but not in any mail order bride country. In Eastern Europe, for example, the most common job for brides is a manager, with “teacher” being the second most popular one (the third most popular option is “Student”). In Asia, the top-3 occupations are a teacher, a doctor, and a business owner, and in Latin America, it’s a nurse, a teacher, and a lawyer.
Women from different countries are… different
Which is not surprising, of course. They have different interests and views, and they work at different jobs.
An average Ukrainian mail order bride, for example, is a Christian in her early 30s, has a degree from a university, works as a manager/teacher, is interested in cooking, reading, or listening to music, and has an Intermediate/Beginner level of English. An average bride from China, in turn, will most likely be non-religious, work as a teacher, a doctor, or a business owner, and have an Advanced level of English.
Even with an analysis this detailed, one can’t generalize them all and say that all the mail order brides are like this or like that—they all are unique, even though there are some patterns that can be found.
Written byJohn Millerstone, Author
We decided to create this project because we’re tired of the situation in the industry. 10 years ago, there were like 40% good sites and 60% bad ones. Today, the ratio is more like 10% to 90%, and that’s not how I want it to be. I mean, it kills me that when an American man types “mail order brides” on Google, there is a 90% possibility that he won’t even find a good dating site, let alone find a bride. I want to change that.
Edited byPhilippe Berry, Contributing Editor
I'm going to tell you everything I know, mes amis. We'll spot online dating charlatans, test the dating sites together, and, of course, with me, you'll learn everything about traveling—I have had 33 trips since 2009, and I think traveling is the best part of online dating. I'll tell you how to save money, how to enjoy a trip, and how to have a good date in a foreign country. I know something about that, too!
