Evidence base
Axios
A Loneliness Epidemic Meets Uneven Social Infrastructure
What it found
This reporting links the decline of "third places" — informal community and social spaces — to broader loneliness prevalence data, and notes that this decline is not evenly distributed across geographies.
Why it matters for practice
Useful as framing context for why place-based social infrastructure matters, but it is journalism connecting existing datasets rather than new primary research; treat the geographic pattern as a lead for further investigation, not a finding on its own.