One in 20 young people say they have no close friends at all
What happened
A report published on 1 September 2026 by the Institute for Public Policy Research has found that young people in England are dramatically more isolated than they were a decade ago. The report is called The Loneliest Generation. It draws on interviews with 150 young people alongside analysis of official data, including the Understanding Society dataset run by the National Centre for Social Research. The headline finding is stark. One in 20 young people now report having no close friends at all. In 2014 it was one in 100. That is a fivefold increase. Friendship has thinned out more broadly, not just at the extreme. The proportion of 16 to 21-year-olds with at least three close friends fell from 85 per cent in 2012-14 to 72 per cent in 2023-25. Younger teenagers reported lower satisfaction with their friendships than a decade ago. Other measures moved in the same direction. Only around one in three young women said they were satisfied with their appearance. Among boys, satisfaction fell from more than half to 38 per cent. On mental health, 47 per cent of young women aged 16 to 24 and 36 per cent of young men now meet the threshold for psychological distress. The report also found that the share of young people whose productivity is affected by mental health rose from 4.1 per cent in 2010-12 to 16.8 per cent today.
Why this matters
Friendship is not a luxury. It is one of the strongest predictors of mental and physical health across a lifetime, and adolescence is when the habits and skills of friendship are built. A fivefold rise in young people with nobody close is not a shift in fashion. It is a change in the basic social fabric of growing up. The report points at several overlapping causes: the closure of youth clubs, unaffordable housing that keeps young adults from moving out or moving on, the pull of platforms like TikTok, and falling self-esteem. None of those is a single villain, and the authors do not present them that way. The framing IPPR uses is worth quoting, because it pushes back on a common reaction. "Kids aren't snowflakes," said Avnee Morjaria, associate director at IPPR. "This is a rational response to a bleak world we have left for them." Ellie Harris, IPPR's head of children and young people, said: "Young people deserve the opportunity to build meaningful, fulfilling lives, and it is our responsibility." IPPR is calling for what it describes as a new settlement for young people. A dedicated programme, chaired by Sam Freedman, will publish detailed proposals in 2027.
What the evidence actually says
This is a think tank report, not a peer-reviewed study, and that distinction is worth holding onto. Think tanks analyse data in service of a policy argument, and IPPR is explicit that it wants change. That does not make the numbers wrong. The underlying data comes from established sources, including Understanding Society, which is one of the UK's most respected long-running social surveys. But interpretation deserves care. Survey questions about friendship change over time, and how young people understand the phrase "close friend" may itself have shifted. Some of the change may be in how people answer, not only in how they live. The report describes associations. It identifies youth club closures, housing costs and social media as likely contributors, but it does not prove which of them is doing the work, or in what proportion. Researchers have argued for years about how much of the decline in adolescent wellbeing can be attributed to smartphones, and that argument is genuinely unresolved. The 150 interviews add texture and human detail. They are not a representative sample. What the data does support confidently is the direction and the scale. Several independent measures - friendship counts, appearance satisfaction, psychological distress, productivity - all moved the same way over the same period. That consistency is the strongest part of the case.
Practical advice
If you are a parent or carer, the most useful thing is often the least dramatic: create situations where friendship can happen without being organised. Lifts to things. A house where friends can come round without notice. Time that is not booked. Ask specific questions rather than general ones. "Who did you sit with at lunch?" gets further than "How was school?" Be wary of framing a phone as the whole problem. Removing it without replacing what it provides - contact, belonging, something to do - can leave a young person more isolated, not less. Focus on adding things rather than only taking away. Look for what still exists locally. Youth clubs have closed in many areas, but Scouts, Guides, cadets, sports clubs, drama groups, libraries and faith groups often run low-cost sessions and are frequently under-subscribed. If a young person has withdrawn from friends, stopped eating properly, stopped sleeping, or lost interest in things they used to enjoy, that is worth a GP appointment. You do not need to wait until it is a crisis. Young people can also contact support directly. Childline is free on 0800 1111 for under-19s. Papyrus HOPELINE247 supports under-35s at risk of suicide on 0800 068 4141. The Samaritans are on 116 123 for anyone, at any age, at any hour. And if you are a young person reading this: having few or no close friends right now is more common than it looks from the outside, and it is not permanent.
What to know
IPPR's report The Loneliest Generation, published on 1 September 2026, found that one in 20 young people in England report having no close friends, up from one in 100 in 2014. The proportion of 16 to 21-year-olds with at least three close friends fell from 85 per cent in 2012-14 to 72 per cent in 2023-25. Nearly half of young women aged 16 to 24 and more than a third of young men now meet the threshold for psychological distress. The report draws on Understanding Society data plus 150 interviews. It is a policy report rather than peer-reviewed research, and it identifies likely causes rather than proving them. Practical support exists and is free: Childline 0800 1111, Papyrus HOPELINE247 0800 068 4141, Samaritans 116 123. Sources: IPPR, "Young people five times more likely to have no friends than a decade ago", 1 September 2026, https://www.ippr.org/media-office/young-people-five-times-more-likely-to-have-no-friends-than-a-decade-ago ; IPPR, "The loneliest generation: What it is like to grow up in England today", 2026, https://www.ippr.org/articles/the-loneliest-generation This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional. If you or a young person you know is struggling, please speak to your GP, or contact the Samaritans free on 116 123 at any time.
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