17% - Percentage of U.S. adults in early 2023 who said they felt lonely “a lot of the day yesterday,” compared with 25% in March 2021. Those numbers were significantly higher among people in lower-income households (27%) and young adults (24%), but both of those groups were faring much better than they were in December 2020, when 42% of lower-income individuals and 38% of young adults reported loneliness.
67% - Percentage of people in early 2023 who reported feeling lonely the previous day who also experienced anger much of that same day, compared with 11% of those who said they weren’t lonely or angry. Similarly, 62% of lonely respondents felt significant worry the previous day compared with 32% of the nonlonely. Meanwhile, 33% of those reporting loneliness had or were being treated for depression, compared with 13% who didn’t report loneliness.
20% - Percentage of people living in large cities who reported a lot of loneliness the previous day, compared with 12% of those in rural areas. Of the nine U.S. regions surveyed, residents of New England reported the highest level of loneliness (20%), and those in the Rocky Mountain region reported the lowest level (14%). A possible explanation for this disparity is that marriage, partnership, and children living at home—more common in rural than urban areas—are protective factors for loneliness, according to Gallup.
Source: Witters, D. (April 4, 2023). Loneliness in U.S. subsides from pandemic high. Gallup. Survey conducted February 21–28, 2023, by Gallup as part of its Gallup Panel, a probability-based nationwide panel of 100,000 adults.
DeAngelis, T. (2023, July 1). Young adults are still lonely, but rates of loneliness are dropping overall. Monitor on Psychology, 54(5). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/07/young-adults-lonely-pandemic
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