Loneliness touches people across every age, income level, and background. It shows up in cities and rural communities, among people surrounded by others and those living alone. What differs is not whether people experience disconnection, but how it takes shape—through work, family life, identity, health, or transitions that strain relationships. For some, loneliness looks like isolation; for others, it feels more like invisibility or the sense that no one really knows or needs them.
At age twelve, it’s sitting with people at lunch and still feeling outside the circle. At twenty-five, it’s moving cities and never finding a real way into belonging. At forty, it’s having a full schedule but no one you can lean on. At seventy, it’s watching the circle get smaller as routines fall away and losses add up.
"What hunger does for food, loneliness does for social relationships. It’s supposed to motivate us and tell us we need more people around us or that we need support. It tells us that something is wrong."
~ Louise Hawkley, PhD, Senior Fellow, NORC at the University of Chicago
This isn’t a small or recent problem. Evidence from long-running U.S. surveys shows that social disconnection has been building for decades, with clearer increases in reported loneliness beginning in the 1990s and accelerating after 2010. Patterns vary across the population, shaped not only by age but also by factors such as low income, lower educational attainment, disability, experiences of discrimination, and patterns of technology use. COVID sharply intensified these patterns, but it did not create them, and for many groups, especially younger ones, levels have not returned to where they were before. Teens and young adults now report the highest rates, with little indication that these experiences fade as people move into later adulthood.
For adolescents and those in early adulthood, loneliness often cuts deeper because it collides with moments when relationships are supposed to help answer foundational questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? Do I matter? Many young people are navigating friendship, status, and identity in environments shaped by social media, academic and economic pressure, and fewer shared spaces for informal connection. Even when they are constantly “in touch,” many report feeling unseen, unsupported, or replaceable—connected in volume, but not in depth.
As people move further into adulthood, loneliness tends to show up differently: through work stress, caregiving, geographic mobility, or the gradual thinning of friendships over time. But the early patterns set in adolescence and young adulthood matter. Disconnection at these stages can shape how people approach relationships for years to come, influencing trust, confidence, and civic engagement, as well as stress levels, mental health, and overall well-being. In that sense, it is not just a passing phase but both a personal health risk and an early signal of how the social fabric itself may fray if connection is not made easier, deeper, and more durable.
NEXT: What’s Causing Loneliness? →