Americans place a lot of importance on friendship. In fact, 61% of American adults say having close friends is extremely or very important to living a fulfilling life, according to one study. recent Pew Research Center survey. This is much higher than the percentages who say the same thing about being married (23%), having children (26%) or having a lot of money (24%).
The Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand Americans’ views and experiences with friendship. It is based on a survey of 5,057 U.S. adults conducted July 17-23, 2023. All respondents are members of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel recruited through random national surveys. sampling of residential addresses. This way, almost every American adult has a chance of being selected. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Learn more about the ATP methodology.
here are the questions used for analysiswith the answers, and its methodology.
We decided to ask a few more questions to better understand how Americans experience friendship today. Here’s what we found:
Number of close friends
A slim majority of adults (53%) say they have between one and four close friends, while a significant share (38%) say they have five or more. Some 8% say they have no close friends.
There is an age difference in the number of close friends people have. About half of adults 65 and older (49%) report having five or more close friends, compared to 40% of those ages 50 to 64, 34% of those ages 30 to 49, and 32% of those under 30. those under 50 are more likely than their older counterparts to report having between one and four close friends.
There are only slight differences in the number of close friendships men and women have. Half of men and 55% of women say they have between one and four close friends. And 40% of men and 36% of women report having five or more close friends.
Sex of friends
Most adults (66%) say all or most of their close friends are the same gender as them. Women are more likely to respond as are men (71% versus 61%).
Among adults aged 50 and older, 74% of women – compared to 59% of men – say all or most of their close friends are the same gender as them. Among adults under 50, the difference is much smaller: 67% of women in this age group say this, as do 63% of men.
Race and ethnicity of friends
A majority of adults (63%) say all or most of their close friends are of the same race or ethnicity as them – although this varies across racial and ethnic groups.
White adults (70%) are more likely than Black (62%), Hispanic (47%), and Asian (52%) adults to say this.
This also differs by age. Adults aged 65 and over are most likely (70%) to say that all or most of their close friends share their race or ethnicity, compared to 53% of adults under 30 – the lowest proportion among all age groups.
Satisfaction with friendships
The majority of Americans with at least one close friend (72%) say they are completely or very satisfied with the quality of their friendships. People aged 50 and over are more likely than their younger counterparts to be very satisfied with their friendships (77% vs. 67%).
The survey also reveals that having more friends is linked to being more satisfied with those friendships. Some 81% of those with five or more close friends say they are completely or very satisfied with their friendships. In comparison, 65% of those with one to four close friends say the same thing.
The survey did not ask adults who reported having no close friends about their level of satisfaction with their friendships.
What are friends talking about?
Among the topics of conversation discussed, the most common are work and family life. Among those who have at least one close friend, 58% say work comes up very often or often in conversations, while 57% say family also comes up often. About half say the same thing about the news (48%).
There are gender and age differences in the topics Americans discuss with close friends:
Sex differences
Women are much more likely than men to say they talk to close friends about their family extremely often or often (67% vs. 47%).
Women also report talking about their physical health (41% vs. 31%) and mental health (31% vs. 15%) more often than men with close friends. The gender gap in mental health is particularly wide among adults under 50: 43% of women in this age group, compared to 20% of men, say they often discuss this topic with close friends .
By smaller but still significant margins, women are also more likely than men to often talk about their work (61% vs. 54%) and pop culture (37% vs. 32%) with their close friends.
Men, meanwhile, are more likely than women to say they talk about sports with close friends (37% vs. 13%) and the news (53% vs. 44%).
Differences by age
People aged 65 and older (45%) are more likely than younger Americans to report that they often talk about their physical health with close friends.
There are two topics where young adults – those under 30 – stand out from other age groups.
About half of these young adults (52%) say they often talk about pop culture with their friends. This compares to about a third or less among older groups. And young adults are more likely to say they often talk about their mental health with close friends: 37% say so, compared to 29% of those aged 30 to 49 and 14% of those aged 50 and over.
