Americans spend just 4% of their Fridays nights with friends—less than half of what it was 20 years ago: study

Americans are spending less and less time with friends and are more lonely. On average, Americans are spending just 4 percent of their Friday evenings socializing with friends.

According to a new study from the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, socializing has dropped drastically, and the amount of late-night evenings out—past midnight—has dropped to under 1 percent. The study, by Neal Caren, examines the drop in socializing that has taken place between the early 2000s and 2024. Expected time with friends during that time period dropped by over half.

The data set was built up using the American Time Use Survey. In 2003, weekdays saw socializing at a modest rate, only about 6 or 7 percent of the time. But on Friday and Saturday, that increased to 9 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Staying out past midnight to socialize was also common on the weekends, the study found. Although American social life took a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, the drop has been taking place for a while now.

Between 2003 and 2005, about 9 percent of Friday evenings were spent with friends. That dropped to 7 percent between 2017 and 2019. With Saturdays, the percentages dropped from 12 percent in 2003-2005 to 7 percent in 2022 to 2024. On average, the percentage of Americans socializing now on Fridays is no more than that of those socializing on Thursdays at 4 percent, less than half of what it was between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, the amount of socializing that takes place on Saturdays is about the amount of time people spent socializing on Friday 20 years ago.

A separate portion of the study found that almost every social activity in the US has dropped over the last 30 years. Those who say they host others at their home have fallen from 88 percent in 1995 to 67 percent in 2026, per a study from Data for Progress.