Originally published 2017-08-08.
Are people really lonelier than they used to be? The honest answer is that loneliness is common and harmful, but the evidence that it is rising steadily is weaker than headlines suggest. The World Health Organization estimates that about one in six people worldwide experience significant loneliness, and research links it to poorer health and earlier death. What drives it is a mix of factors: how our social networks are shaped, how loneliness itself spreads between people, and how we use technology, for better and for worse.
This guide walks through the most quoted findings, what they actually show, where they have been overstated, and what helps.
The famous “no close friends” statistic
One figure has been repeated for years: the share of Americans with nobody to discuss important matters with supposedly tripled between 1985 and 2004. It comes from a 2006 analysis of the General Social Survey by sociologists Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin and Matthew Brashears, who reported that “zero confidants” had become the most common answer.
The finding has been seriously challenged. Berkeley sociologist Claude Fischer argued in 2009 that the 2004 data were almost certainly distorted by how that year’s survey was run. Among people with postgraduate degrees, for instance, the share naming no confidant jumped from 1% to 16%, an implausible change, and other surveys from the same period showed no comparable collapse in friendships. The original authors defended their work but agreed that the 2004 data probably overstated isolation.
So the tripling claim is best treated as disputed, not as an established fact. Loneliness can be a serious problem without that particular number being right.
Can loneliness spread from person to person?
A widely cited 2009 study suggests it can. John Cacioppo of the University of Chicago, James Fowler of UC San Diego and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard used data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has followed residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, and their families since 1948. Looking at 5,124 people in the study’s second generation, they found that loneliness tended to move through social networks over time.
Some details matter. Changes in friendships predicted loneliness more strongly than changes in family ties. Women were more likely than men to “catch” it. And lonely people gradually drifted to the edges of their networks, losing friends along the way, but often passing on some of their loneliness first.
The proposed mechanism is behavioural rather than mysterious. Lonely people tend to become more alert to social threat and less trusting, which can make them withdraw or react defensively. Those around them may then pull back too. Later research has found the contagion effect to be inconsistent, since people who lose a friend often make new ones, so it is a tendency, not a rule.
Why loneliness affects health
The health link is one of the best-supported parts of this story. A 2015 meta-analysis led by Brigham Young University psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad, covering studies published between 1980 and 2014, found that loneliness was associated with a 26% higher chance of dying during the study periods. Social isolation was linked to a 29% increase and living alone to 32%.
Loneliness is also strongly associated with cardiovascular disease, higher blood pressure and inflammation, and some studies find lonelier people are more likely to show reactivation of dormant viruses and stronger inflammatory responses to stress. Researchers stress that much of this evidence is correlational, so it is not yet firmly established how much loneliness causes illness directly and how much illness causes loneliness.
In 2023 the US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, issued an advisory comparing the health risks of social disconnection to those of smoking and obesity, and the WHO later declared loneliness a global public health concern.
Is the internet making us lonelier?
It is tempting to blame screens, and older claims tied the rise of loneliness neatly to the arrival of personal computers and the web. Those timelines do not hold up: there is no clean dataset showing loneliness surging at the moment home computers or the World Wide Web appeared.
What research does show is more nuanced. Heavy internet use and loneliness are moderately correlated, but the relationship seems to run both ways: lonely people often go online looking for company, and some patterns of use can deepen isolation. How people use technology matters more than how much. Active use, such as messaging friends, joining communities around shared interests or arranging to meet up, tends to help. Passive scrolling, comparing yourself to others and replacing in-person time with screen time tends not to.
Online friendships can be real and meaningful, especially for people who are housebound, live far from others or belong to small communities. The risk comes when online contact becomes a substitute for every other kind of connection rather than a bridge to it.
Are young adults the loneliest generation?
Several surveys in recent years have found young adults reporting more loneliness than older age groups, which runs against the stereotype of the isolated pensioner. Possible reasons include frequent moves for study and work, later marriage, insecure jobs, remote and freelance work, and the cost of socialising.
Still, researchers urge caution. Fischer and Eric Klinenberg have argued that the data do not clearly support talk of an “epidemic”, and a 2025 WHO report concluded there was not enough evidence to say loneliness has increased over time. Young people may also simply be more willing to admit to it.
Common myths about loneliness
“Lonely people are alone.” Loneliness is the gap between the connection you want and the connection you have. You can feel lonely in a marriage or a busy office, and be content living alone.
“It is a personal weakness.” It is a normal signal, much like hunger, telling you a need is not being met.
“More contacts will fix it.” Quality matters more than quantity. One or two people you can be honest with often count for more than a long list of acquaintances.
What actually helps
A 2010 meta-analysis by Christopher Masi and colleagues compared approaches to reducing loneliness. The most effective ones targeted the anxious, suspicious thinking that keeps lonely people from reaching out, such as assuming others will reject them. Practical steps that follow from this research include:
- Name the missing connection. Do you lack a confidant, regular company, or a group to belong to? Each calls for a different step.
- Join something that repeats. Weekly classes, sports, volunteering or faith groups create the regular contact that friendships grow from.
- Reach out first. Most people underestimate how much others appreciate a message or an invitation.
- Notice your assumptions. If you expect rejection, test it gently rather than treating it as fact.
- Use technology to meet, not just to watch. Let online contact lead to calls and real meetings where possible.
If loneliness has lasted a long time, or comes with low mood, hopelessness or trouble sleeping, talk to a doctor. It is a common reason to seek help, and support is available.
Sources: ScienceDaily: Sociologist questions finding that Americans have fewer confidants; UChicago News: Loneliness can be contagious, study finds; Holt-Lunstad et al., Perspectives on Psychological Science (2015); Wikipedia: Loneliness.
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