America's "Friendship Recession" Is Weakening Civic Life

Community life suffers when we don’t prioritize friendship

If you’ve read anything about America’s “Friendship Recession,” chances are that it cites a 2021 survey we conducted. It was one of the first major studies solely dedicated to the topic of friendship in years, and the results were jaw-dropping—Americans reported a massive drop in the number of close friends, with men experiencing the steepest decline. 

Y…