Evidence base
Gallup and Meta
The State of Social Connections
What it found
Gallup and Meta surveyed roughly 1,000 people aged 15 and older in each of 142 countries between June 2022 and February 2023 (China excluded, covering roughly 77% of the world's adult population). 72% of respondents, an estimated 3.2 billion people across the surveyed countries, reported feeling very or fairly socially connected.
Why it matters for practice
This is a baseline prevalence figure, not an explanation of what drives connection or disconnection, so it's most useful for framing scale rather than guiding intervention design. Its breadth across 142 countries makes it a reasonable reference point for comparing national or regional connection rates, provided you note the China exclusion when citing global totals.