In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory declaring loneliness a public health epidemic. Not a cultural trend. Not a generational quirk. A public health crisis, comparable in its effects to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
That framing stopped a lot of people in their tracks. Loneliness had always felt like a personal problem — something you fixed by being more outgoing, or moving to a livelier city, or downloading a new app. The Surgeon General's advisory said something different: this is structural, it's widespread, and it's getting worse.
Here's what we actually know about it — and what the evidence suggests is helping.
How bad is it
The numbers are striking regardless of which study you look at. The Surgeon General's advisory cited research showing that about half of American adults report measurable levels of loneliness. A separate survey found that 1 in 5 Americans say they have no one to talk to about important matters — up significantly from previous decades. Among young adults aged 18–25, who are supposedly in the most social period of their lives, rates of loneliness are among the highest of any age group.
This isn't just about feeling sad. Chronic loneliness is associated with significantly higher risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression, and early death. The social connection you have — or don't have — turns out to be one of the strongest predictors of long-term health outcomes, comparable to diet and exercise. Most people don't think about it that way.
Why it's getting worse
Several structural forces are compounding at once.
The collapse of third places. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term "third place" to describe the informal gathering spots — the barbershop, the pub, the diner, the community center — where people came together outside of home and work. These spaces provided the repeated casual contact that produces acquaintances and friends. They've been steadily disappearing for decades, replaced by retail chains, remote work, and suburban sprawl designed around cars rather than people.
Remote work and dispersal. The shift to remote work removed one of the last reliable sources of repeated casual contact for millions of adults. Work friendships are underrated as a social infrastructure — many people don't realize how much their sense of connection was coming from office small talk until it was gone.
Phones as a substitute for presence. The average American spends over seven hours a day looking at screens. Social media creates the feeling of connection — likes, comments, ambient awareness of what acquaintances are doing — without providing the actual in-person contact that the nervous system needs. Research consistently finds that passive social media use is associated with higher loneliness, not lower.
The atrophying of social skills. Building and maintaining friendships requires practice. Extended periods of reduced social contact — whether from remote work, pandemic isolation, or simply defaulting to screens — make social situations feel harder, which creates avoidance, which makes things worse. This cycle is particularly pronounced among younger adults who spent formative social years in lockdown.
What isn't helping
A lot of the proposed solutions to loneliness don't hold up to scrutiny.
More social media is not the answer. Multiple large studies have found that time on social media platforms is either uncorrelated with loneliness or actively makes it worse — the comparison and passivity built into the format work against genuine connection.
Large community events feel like they should help but often don't produce lasting connection. The conditions that produce friendship — repeated contact, small groups, low-stakes settings — are absent from most public events. You can attend a festival every weekend and still feel lonely.
Digital connection as a substitute for in-person contact has limitations that are becoming clearer in the research. Video calls and messaging sustain existing relationships reasonably well but are poor substitutes for building new ones. The ambient cues — body language, shared physical space, the spontaneity of unplanned conversation — are what create the sense of genuine presence.
What actually is helping
Structural interventions that create repeated contact. The most effective approaches don't ask people to be more social — they redesign environments to make casual contact happen automatically. Co-housing communities, mixed-use urban development, shared workspaces, sports leagues, and recurring social groups all work on this principle. You don't have to decide to be social; the structure does it for you.
Small-group, activity-based formats. Research on loneliness interventions consistently finds that small groups (under 10 people) engaged in a shared activity produce better outcomes than large events or one-on-one matching. The activity provides a reason to be there that doesn't put the relationship at the center — which paradoxically makes connection easier.
Prioritizing weak ties. Strong friendships matter, but so do acquaintances — the neighbors you nod to, the regulars at your coffee shop, the people you see at a weekly class. Research by sociologist Mark Granovetter and others has found that weak ties contribute significantly to wellbeing and are often the bridge to stronger connections. Environments that create weak ties are more valuable than most people realize.
Making it normal to seek connection. One of the most insidious aspects of the loneliness epidemic is the shame attached to it. People don't want to admit they're lonely, so they don't take the steps that would help. Communities and products that normalize the explicit goal of meeting people — making it a feature rather than an admission of failure — reduce that barrier.
Where Bunch fits
Bunch is built around the specific conditions research identifies as effective: small groups, shared activities, repeated contact, and an explicit social intent that removes the awkwardness of admitting you want to meet people.
It's not a solution to a public health crisis. But it's designed around the same principles that the research points to — and for the people who use it in Jersey City and Hoboken, it works.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a loneliness epidemic in the US?
Yes — the U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health epidemic in 2023, citing research showing roughly half of American adults report measurable loneliness. The health effects are significant: chronic loneliness is associated with higher risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, and early death.
Why are young people so lonely?
Several factors converge: the decline of third places where casual social contact happened naturally, extended screen time that substitutes for in-person connection, remote work removing office social infrastructure, and for many, reduced in-person interaction during formative social years. Young adults aged 18–25 consistently report some of the highest loneliness rates of any age group despite being in ostensibly social life stages.
Does social media make loneliness worse?
Research suggests passive social media use — scrolling and observing rather than actively communicating — is associated with higher loneliness, not lower. Social media creates the feeling of connection through ambient awareness of others without providing the in-person contact the nervous system actually needs.
What actually helps with loneliness?
The most effective interventions create repeated casual contact with the same people in small-group settings — sports leagues, recurring social groups, shared workspaces, community organizations. Single large events rarely produce lasting connection. The format matters as much as the activity.
How do I stop feeling lonely in a new city?
Find one recurring small-group activity and commit to showing up more than once. The first time is about exposure. The second and third times are where connection actually starts. Apps like Bunch that facilitate repeated small-group meetups are built specifically for this — in Jersey City and Hoboken, it's the most direct path to building a local social circle.