in 7 to 1 in 6 men—report having zero close friends
The statistic you're referencing is about the male loneliness epidemic. Here's the context:
The "1 in 6 men have no close friends" statistic
This comes from survey data tracking male friendship over decades. The key findings:
- In 1990, only about 3% of men (roughly 1 in 33) reported having no close friends.
- By the early 2020s, that number had risen to roughly 15% (1 in 6-7 men) - a dramatic increase over ~30 years.
- The data is most associated with the Survey Center on American Life (part of the American Enterprise Institute), particularly surveys conducted around 2021.
What counts as a "close friend"?
The surveys typically define close friends as people you can confide in, rely on emotionally, or turn to in a crisis - not just acquaintances or coworkers.
Why the rise?
Research points to several overlapping factors:
- Men tend to form friendships through shared activity (school, sports, work) - and those structured contexts disappear after young adulthood
- Men are less likely than women to initiate or maintain emotional friendships
- Rising remote work and suburbanization reduce incidental contact
- Longer working hours and family demands squeeze out social time
- Cultural norms discourage men from expressing vulnerability or need for friendship
The health stakes
Social isolation carries real health consequences - comparable in mortality risk to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, per research by Julianne Holt-Lunstad. Isolated men also show higher rates of depression, substance use, and suicide.
The "1 in 7 to 1 in 6" phrasing likely reflects the range across slightly different survey years or question wordings - both are drawn from the same body of data showing a roughly 5x increase in male friendlessness since 1990.
How many people are lonely in the world
Global loneliness estimates vary by how it's measured, but the numbers are large. Roughly 1 in 4 adults worldwide report feeling lonely, which at current world population translates to somewhere around 2 billion people.
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how many people are lonely in the world 2024 2025 statistics
Here's what the best available data shows:
How Many People Are Lonely in the World?
The Big Number
According to the Meta-Gallup survey of 142 countries (the largest study of its kind), nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide - over 1 billion people - feel very or fairly lonely. And that figure likely understates the real number because China (the world's second most populous country) was not included in the survey.
A broader estimate from other research puts global loneliness as high as 33% of adults, which at ~8 billion people would be roughly 2.6 billion.
By Country (Gallup/Meta data)
The loneliness burden is not evenly distributed:
| Country | Loneliness Rate |
|---|---|
| Brazil | ~50% |
| Turkey | ~46% |
| India | ~43% |
| Russia / Eastern Europe | Among the highest |
| Northern Europe | Among the lowest |
Who Is Loneliest?
This is a surprising finding - it's not the elderly:
- Young adults (19-29): 27% report feeling lonely - the highest of any age group
- Adults 45+: Majorities say they are NOT lonely
- Older adults (65+): Only 17% feel lonely - the lowest rate globally
- Institutionalized older adults: A striking 50.7% report loneliness
A 2025 meta-analysis in Nature covering 1.25 million older adults found a prevalence of 27.6% among that group specifically.
The U.S. Picture
- ~21% of U.S. adults feel lonely (Harvard's Making Caring Common project, May 2024)
- ~52 million Americans reported feeling lonely "a lot" on a given day in 2024
- An APA 2025 survey found 6 in 10 U.S. adults feel a lack of companionship or feel left out often
- 69% of U.S. adults said they needed more emotional support in the past year than they received - up from 65% in 2024
Why It Matters
The WHO declared loneliness a global public health priority in 2023. Research consistently shows chronic loneliness carries health risks comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day - raising risks of heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression, and early death.
Bottom line: Somewhere between 1 and 2.6 billion people experience meaningful loneliness globally, depending on how strictly it's measured. The most rigorous cross-national data (Gallup/Meta) lands at over 1 billion as a conservative floor.
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