There’s been too much talk about congressional dysfunction during the government shutdown, and not enough talk about love. Yes, there were some wedding casualties, but the last two weeks may have also born new romance.

Zoosk, an online dating app that says it has more than 40 million users, issued a press release on what may be the last day of the shutdown claiming that the company has seen a huge spike in “online flirting, connecting and dating” during the shutdown.

Here’s how the numbers broke down when comparing the week before the feds closed with the first or second week of the shutdown:

• The number of times D.C.-area Zoosk members indicated they wanted to meet up with another user increased by 91.6 percent the first week the government was closed and 110 percent the second week.
• D.C.-area Zoosk members looked at 45.6 percent more profiles during the second week of the shutdown.
• There was a 48 percent increase in the number of instant messages sent between logged-in users during the second week of the shutdown in the D.C. area.
• Zoosk saw D.C.-area new users grow by 4.3 percent during the first week of the shutdown and 17.6 percent during the second week of the shutdown.

Zoosk did not indicate whether the spike in online dating was related to the increase in alcohol consumption during the shutdown.

Photo via nerdcoregirl, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0