Evidence base
Survey Center on American Life, American Enterprise Institute
The State of American Friendship: Change, Challenges, and Loss
What it found
This survey compares Americans' close-friendship networks in 2021 to 1990 benchmarks. The share reporting no close friends rose from 3% to 12% overall, with a steeper drop among men: those with six or more close friends fell from 55% to 27%, and men reporting no close friends rose fivefold to 15%.
Why it matters for practice
The 1990-to-2021 comparison gives this trend line more weight than a single-point survey, and the gendered split is useful for anyone designing outreach or peer-support programmes aimed at isolated men. Read it as evidence of a long decline rather than a pandemic-specific effect, since the drop predates 2020.