Americans are growing lonelier, according to new research released Wednesday, even when they’re not actually alone.
An increasing number of middle-aged and older adults — especially those in their 40s and 50s — are lonely, according to a report released by AARP, a nonprofit advocacy group for older Americans. Among the loneliest are adults 45 to 49 years old (49 percent identified as lonely), as well as respondents who never married (62 percent); are not working (57 percent); or whose household income fell below $25,000 a year (63 percent).
The findings are based on surveys of more than 3,000 U.S. residents ages 45 and older, conducted in August 2025, 2018 and 2010. Data was collected by Ipsos through an online research panel representative of the U.S. population.
This year’s report revealed a marked uptick in loneliness: 40 percent of the respondents were lonely, compared with 35 percent in both 2018 and 2010. It also found a new divergence by gender. Some 42 percent of men were lonely this year versus 37 percent for women; the numbers were 34 and 36 percent, respectively, in 2018. And men were more likely than women to report having no close friends.
The report underscored that the 40s and 50s can be a particularly unhappy time, a crucial transition period in which pressure from caregiving, careers and changing social networks can heighten feelings of isolation.
At that age, “we’re so busy with work and raising children and being part of the sandwich generation that we’re not able to really invest in the relationships that can help sustain us and make us happy,” said Debra Whitman, chief public policy officer at AARP and author of, “The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond.”
The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as a “U-shaped happiness curve,” with people happiest when they’re young and increasingly as they age.
The report distinguished between perceived loneliness — how often someone says they feel lonely or isolated — and “actual loneliness,” a ranking that considers answers to 20 questions, including “how often do you feel left out?” and “how often do you feel that people are around you but not with you?” The ranking is called the University of California at Los Angeles’ Loneliness Scale.
Perceived loneliness has changed little — 1 in 3 respondents this year said they sometimes or always feel lonely, compared with 31 percent in 2018, and 33 percent in 2010. About 40 percent of those respondents said their lonely feelings have persisted for six years or more, which would translate to about 55 million people nationwide.
The delta between how many people say they’re lonely, versus how many qualify as lonely by researchers’ standards, highlights what the study calls a “deeper and growing issue.” Adults may not think of themselves as lonely, researchers said, and so won’t see a need to seek social connections.
In broad strokes, the older, wealthier and more educated someone is, the less likely they were to be lonely, the report found.
Why loneliness is on the rise is harder to pinpoint. More than 60 percent of people who identified as lonely said there was no specific source, compared with 57 percent in 2010. Among those who did attribute their loneliness to something specific: bereavement, a sense of disconnection, health challenges, and being separated from loved ones due to life changes such as a move or retirement were among the most common, the report found.
Debbe Wilson of Phoenix was 63 when her second husband died 11 years ago. It came suddenly, only 110 days after a cancer diagnosis, she said. Then, two weeks later, she lost her mother, too.
And when her dog died three years later, “I don’t think I have ever felt so alone,” Wilson said. Before, she’d always had her parents, children, a husband, a pet to care for. “All of a sudden I had no living thing in my house, and it was just terrifying to me,” she said.
She wasn’t alone; her two grown daughters and grandchildren live within a 10-minute drive. But she said she quickly realized the difference between being alone and feeling lonely.
Many lonely adults seek connection, but a lack of confidence, fear of rejection or being short on time are common factors that get in the way, the AARP report found. Compared with 2018 and 2010, more adults today said they’d seen their friend groups shrink in the last five years, and that they were volunteering less and attending fewer religious services.
Wilson took steps to overcome her loneliness. A former teacher, she volunteered at her grandchildren’s school to feel a sense of purpose. She became a court-appointed special advocate for children, joined the state’s foster care review board and became active with the local zoo. She also started a group for older women in the same boat.
Jennie Phipps, in Punta Gorda, Florida, turned to similar groups when she was widowed — and again when she remarried in 2020. An extrovert with two sons, Phipps found she was looking for company — a group she could go on excursions with and talk to — after she and her new husband moved into a single-family house on the water, she said.
“If you don’t work, and you don’t get out into the real world, it can be lonely,” she said.
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