Research library

Loneliness and belonging: the key statistics

A small, carefully checked set of real figures on loneliness, social isolation and connection. Every number here is quoted from a named, authoritative source with a year and a link, so you can verify it yourself. Free for journalists, writers and researchers to reference.

Compiled by The Tribe. Last reviewed 9 September 2026. Sources include the World Health Organization, the US Surgeon General, Gallup, Harvard and the UK government.

How common is loneliness?

Loneliness is not a rare or fringe experience. Across large, cross-country studies, a sizeable share of people report feeling lonely.

1 in 6 Around 1 in 6 people worldwide is affected by loneliness. Source: World Health Organization, Commission on Social Connection, 2025. who.int

Nearly 1 in 4 Nearly one in four people worldwide (about 24%) feel very or fairly lonely, based on a survey across 142 countries and areas. Source: Meta-Gallup, Global State of Social Connections, 2023. gallup.com

36% 36% of Americans reported feeling "serious loneliness" in a national survey conducted during the pandemic. Source: Making Caring Common, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Loneliness in America, 2021. mcc.gse.harvard.edu

7% 7% of adults in England reported that they feel lonely often or always. Source: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Community Life Survey 2024/25, 2025. gov.uk

What loneliness does to health

Loneliness and social isolation are not only painful. Reviews of the evidence link them to serious physical health risks and to early death.

Up to 15 a day Lacking social connection can increase the risk of premature death about as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Source: US Surgeon General's Advisory, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023. US Surgeon General (via NIH Bookshelf)

29% and 32% Poor social relationships were associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke. Source: US Surgeon General's Advisory, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023. US Surgeon General (via NIH Bookshelf)

50% Loneliness is associated with a roughly 50% increased risk of developing dementia in older adults. Source: US Surgeon General's Advisory, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023. US Surgeon General (via NIH Bookshelf)

871,000 a year Loneliness is linked to an estimated 100 deaths every hour, or more than 871,000 deaths a year. Source: World Health Organization, Commission on Social Connection, 2025. who.int

Who is most affected

Loneliness is often pictured as an older person's problem. The data tells a more surprising story: young adults report some of the highest levels of all.

27% vs 17% Young adults aged 19 to 29 were the loneliest age group (27% felt very or fairly lonely), a higher rate than adults aged 65 and older (17%). Source: Meta-Gallup, Global State of Social Connections, 2023. gallup.com

61% 61% of young adults aged 18 to 25 reported feeling "serious loneliness". Source: Making Caring Common, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Loneliness in America, 2021. mcc.gse.harvard.edu

The quiet decline of friendship

Alongside loneliness, the number of close friendships people report has fallen sharply over three decades, especially in the United States.

3% to 12% The share of Americans who said they had no close friends rose from 3% in 1990 to 12% in 2021. Source: Survey Center on American Life, The State of American Friendship, 2021. americansurveycenter.org

33% to 13% The share of Americans who said they had 10 or more close friends fell from 33% in 1990 to 13% in 2021. Source: Survey Center on American Life, The State of American Friendship, 2021. americansurveycenter.org

Connection is protective

The hopeful side of the same research: strong social ties are linked to living longer, not just feeling better.

+50% People with stronger social relationships had a 50% greater likelihood of survival, in a meta-analysis pooling 148 studies and 308,849 participants. Source: Holt-Lunstad, Smith and Layton, PLOS Medicine, 2010. journals.plos.org

A note on honesty: these are correlational and modelled findings from reputable public-health research, not guarantees about any one person. We have quoted each figure as its source states it, and we left out anything we could not confirm against a named source. If you spot an error, please tell us at admin@thetribe.cloud and we will correct it.

How to cite this page

You are welcome to quote these figures. Please cite each statistic to its original source (linked above), and, if useful, link back to this page as where you found them:

The Tribe, "Loneliness and Belonging: Key Statistics", thetribe.cloud/research, reviewed 9 September 2026.

Last reviewed: 9 September 2026. We check the links and figures periodically and update this page when sources are revised.

Why we gathered this

The Tribe exists for one reason: to be a place to belong when the future feels uncertain. The figures on this page are why. Loneliness is common, it is not anyone's fault, and connection genuinely helps. We would rather meet that honestly, with real evidence, than with slogans.

If any of this rings true for you, there is a seat here with your name on it.

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