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The nation’s capital has been named the loneliest city in America, according to a new study by the Chamber of Commerce.
The survey goes on to reveal that 36 million Americans, more than ten percent of the entire nation’s population, live alone.
At the other end of the spectrum, Fontana, in Southern California’s Inland Empire, has been named the least lonely place to live, with just 11.1 percent of residents living alone.
The conclusions were drawn from census data from more than 170 cities with populations of more than 150,000. The loneliness measure was based on how many homes in the city had a single occupant.
In Washington DC, almost half of the 319,565 households are single-person. That number has increased by almost six percent in the last six years.
In Washington DC, almost half of the 319,565 households are single-person. That number has increased by almost six percent in the last six years.
Last year, the US Census Bureau named DC the work-from-home capital of the United States, with 48.3 percent of employees working remotely.
St. Louis rounds out the five loneliest cities, followed by the DC commuter cities Alexandria and Richmond, Virginia, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
St. Louis remains second on the list despite the fact that the number of single-person households decreased by 3,000 between 2021 and 2022.
One city that is getting lonelier is Boston, which despite coming in at 30th on the list, research notes: ‘[Boston] seems to be more and more alone. On average, the number of people living alone in Boston has increased 1.2% on average year-over-year since 2016.’
For men, the loneliest city is Fort Lauderdale, where nearly 25 percent of men live alone. In the same city, 16.1 percent of women live alone.
For women, the loneliest city is Richmond, Virginia, where 28 percent of women live alone. There are 18 percent of male counterparts who live alone.
The city with the fastest increase in male loneliness was Fort Collins, Colorado, which saw a 14.2 increase in men living alone over the past year. The capital of the Rocky Mountain state, Denver, ranks 27th on the list.
The city of Fontana, shown here, is the least lonely place to live in the United States.
St. Louis remains second on the list even though the number of single-person households decreased by 3,000 between 2021 and 2022
The city experiencing the largest increase in female loneliness is Gilbert, Arizona, which saw an 18 percent increase between 2021 and 2022.
In 2022, the average age of marriage for men was 30, for women 28.
Of the ten least lonely cities in the United States, nine are in California, with Fontana, Oxnard, Moreno Valley and Elk Grove topping the list. Despite this, the research found that Pasadena, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Irvine experienced some of the largest increases in single-person households.
The fact that roommates are almost a necessity in California, where rents are the third highest in the country, behind only Hawaii and New York, could have influenced the study results.
The only city outside of California that ranks among the least lonely is Garland, Texas, just outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
A rent sign is posted in Sacramento, California, high rents make roommates a necessity in the Golden State
California ranks behind only New York and Hawaii in terms of high rental rates
The study comes as across the country, more people are moving back in with their parents.
Maine and Florida were found to be the two loneliest states to live in in a study conducted earlier this year by AginginPlace.org. The least lonely states were Utah and Alaska.
The data from that study incorporated single-person households, but also the number of people in the state who used dating apps and who were widowed and divorced.
Maine has the highest divorce rate, 14 percent, in the country, while much of Florida’s aging population is widowed.
Steve Harker of Aging in Place said Forbes in November that one of the reasons Utah ranked so high on the list was the state’s tight-knit Mormon community, while Alaska has the lowest widowhood rate in the country.
The Aging in Place study placed the District of Columbia, where Washington DC is located, in tenth place on its list.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Medical Association declared loneliness to be a public health problem. While the World Health Organization said the lockdown had induced a 25 percent increase in anxiety and depression worldwide.
a 2022 waiting time survey found that, worldwide, the loneliest cities were Stockholm, Sweden, followed by Copenhagen in Denmark and Sydney, Australia.
While a 2021 Study from the Harvard Graduate School of Education of 950 Americans found that 61 percent between the ages of 18 and 25 said they felt lonely. The number among other age groups averaged 36 percent.