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A new study shows that loneliness has reached “epidemic” levels in America, with those Americans aged 18-22 being the loneliest.
After surveying 20,000 people across the country, global health service company Cigna found that nearly half of all Americans report always feeling alone or feeling alone at least “sometimes.” But that’s not all. These statistics from Cigna were really eye-opening:
- One in four Americans (27 percent) rarely or never feel as though there are people who really understand them.
- Two in five Americans sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful (43 percent) and that they are isolated from others (43 percent).
- One in five people report they rarely or never feel close to people (20 percent) or feel like there are people they can talk to (18 percent).
- Americans who live with others are less likely to be lonely (average loneliness score of 43.5) compared to those who live alone (46.4). However, this does not apply to single parents/guardians (average loneliness score of 48.2) – even though they live with children, they are more likely to be lonely.
- Only around half of Americans (53 percent) have meaningful in-person social interactions, such as having an extended conversation with a friend or spending quality time with family, on a daily basis.
As previously mentioned, those aged 18-22 (Get Z) report experiencing the most loneliness. They also report the worst health of all the other generations. Before you go blaming social media, Cigna has one more statistic for you:
“Social media use alone is not a predictor of loneliness; respondents defined as very heavy users of social media have a loneliness score (43.5) that is not markedly different from the score of those who never use social media (41.7),” the site states.
Thoughts?
You’ll Never Guess Which Generation Reports Feeling The Loneliest was originally published on globalgrind.com
