Jeffrey Hall Puts 200+ Hours on Close Friendship as Americans With 10 Friends Fall to 13%
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Jul 10
Jeffrey Hall Puts 200+ Hours on Close Friendship as Americans With 10 Friends Fall to 13%
1 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jul 10
Summary
Hall’s University of Kansas research sets concrete friendship thresholds: about 50 hours for a casual friend, 90 for a genuine friendship and more than 200 for a close, lasting bond.
Those benchmarks matter more as retirement approaches because work’s built-in social structure disappears, and the report argues happiness in retirement often depends less on wealth than on community.
U.S. friendship data show the backdrop worsening: the share of Americans with 10 or more close friends fell to 13% in 2021 from 33% in 1990, while those with zero close friends rose to 12% from 3%.
Voluntary leisure time appears to build bonds faster than obligatory professional contact, leading the report to urge people in their 40s, 50s and 60s to join recurring activity-based groups before retiring.