A growing number of studies confirm what many are already seeing: Young people are lonely.
Nearly a quarter, 24% of 18-to-29-year-olds say they feel lonely or isolated from those around them all or most of the time, according to a January 2025 report from the Pew Research Center.
But for young people, that loneliness they’re feeling isn’t necessarily the result of not having friends.
A new study published in the scientific journal Plos One looked at people’s age in relation to both social wellbeing, how much companionship and friendship support they have, and social ill-being, their feeling of loneliness and disconnection.
Researchers found that one group experienced both “high levels of loneliness and high levels of connection,” says Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas and a co-author of the study.
That group was young, educated women. Here’s how that’s playing out and why.
‘Women tend to have higher friendship expectations’
Researchers, who spoke to 4,812 people ages 18 to 95, found that young people tend to experience a lot of change.
Younger participants in the study listed major life transitions like finishing or starting a degree, ending a romantic relationship or moving as examples of what they’d recently been through. All are staples of the kind of flux that comes with entering adulthood. And many of these situations can mean starting over in a new location, Hall says.
Hall describes a “very lonely sort of experience” for young people who are constantly being “uprooted” and having to “find new systems of keeping in touch with others.”
Every Sunday, call your sister.
Jeffrey Hall
Professor of communication studies, University of Kansas
As it pertains to women, specifically, Hall’s research has found “that women tend to have higher friendship expectations than do men,” he says. These expectations often revolve around feeling that their friends genuinely like them, that they spend quality time with them, and that they are a good person to be around
Even if you have a lot of friends, this can still make you feel like you want more out of your friendships, he says.
‘Feeling lonely is part of what it means to have a healthy system’
To help mitigate young people’s loneliness, Hall believes there needs to be less of a cultural emphasis on climbing the financial and professional ladder and more of an emphasis on social connection.
“We are asking young people, for a longer period of time than ever before, with more economic uncertainty than before, to be able to maintain all of these friendships while pursuing that brass ring,” he says.
If they choose to turn down a job that would mean moving far from their social network, they should not be judged or be made to feel bad about it, he adds.
That collective mindset shift will take some time.
But until then, there are some things young people can do to ensure they get more quality time with people that matter to them and deepen connections.
- First, build a routine of talking to people. “Every Sunday, call your sister,” Hall says as an example.
- For friends who are harder to pin down, “social media is barely better than nothing,” he says. Try texting, a phone call or a video call sporadically and aim to meet up in person whenever possible.
- Finally, “recognize that it’s a priority to build your social health,” he says. It’s as important as your physical health.
Feeling lonely is not a sign that something’s wrong, Hall adds. It means you want to be with people.
“Feeling lonely is part of what it means to have a healthy system,” he says. “It’s what you do with that feeling of loneliness that matters.”
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