8% US adults say they have no close friends: Survey

(NewsNation) — A new survey finds that 8% of adults in the U.S. say they don’t have a single close friend.

The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center, shed new light on loneliness in America. According to the survey, 7% of people reported having only one close friend.

The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation may have contributed to the findings is unknown, but rates of suicide reached an all-time high in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nearly 50,000 people took their own lives last year, an estimated 3% increase compared to 2021, according to provisional findings from U.S. death certificates reviewed by The Associated Press.

There was, however, good news in the Pew survey: Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they had at least five or more close friends.

The survey also provided perspective on how race plays a role in friendships. A majority of adults, 63%, said all or most of their close friends are the same race or ethnicity as them. Pew noted that this, however, varies across racial and ethnic groups.

White adults, 70%, were more likely than Black, 62%, Hispanic, 47%, and Asian adults, 52%, to say this.