If you’ve come across headlines like “Gen Z can’t afford a first date” and wondered whether that’s an exaggeration or a real, data-backed trend, the short answer is: it’s real, and it has a name — Date-flation. This report traces the claim back to its original sources, checks the numbers against multiple independent surveys, and lays out exactly why romance has quietly become one of the more expensive line items in a young American’s monthly budget. The claim did not originate from a single dramatic headline. It’s the product of at least two separate, credible financial-industry surveys — one from…