Friendships Are Not in Decline Among Americans: Study

Key Takeaways

• American friendships are not in decline

• On average, U.S. adults have four or five friends, same as previous decades

• However, they long to spend more time with friends or foster higher-quality friendships

WEDNESDAY, July 31, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Loneliness has been a major concern in America, particularly in the wake of the social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But friendships are not in decline in the United States, a new study has found.

An American adult has an average of four to five friends, similar to numbers reported in previous research from 1970 to 2015, researchers reported July 30 in the journal PLOS One .

Only 2% of people describe themselves as friendless, which also is in line with data from prior years.

However, many people say they’d like to spend more time with friends or have higher quality friendships, researchers found.

“Americans long for greater closeness with friends; although over 75% were satisfied with the number of friends they had, 42% felt they were not as close to their friends as they would like,” wrote the research team led by Natalie Pennington , an assistant professor of communication studies at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

For the study, researchers surveyed nearly 6,000 American adults about their friendships and well-being, as part of an ongoing multi-year research project.

The data showed that people often talk with friends in person, though texting and phone calls are also common.

Overall, results show that the ongoing project could shed new light on friendship and well-being, researchers said.

For example, they plan to consider the varying definitions of “friend,” and whether friendships reported by someone are actually reciprocated by the person they deem a friend.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about the health effects of loneliness .

SOURCE: PLOS, news release, July 30, 2024

What This Means For You

Americans have about as many friends as ever, but long for better connections.