IT STARTS WITH ONE CONNECTION
Not a grand gesture. Not a perfect moment. Just a single, human spark.
When someone reaches out, someone answers back. It’s so easy to believe chronic loneliness is too big to solve and too heavy to lift. But the moment one person feels seen, it softens and shifts.
One conversation can interrupt a spiral. One shared laugh can reset a day. One moment of understanding can remind someone they’re not alone in this world.
Connection is not rare. It simply must be built. Then, chosen and repeated.
Because every community, every movement, every meaningful change we’ve ever known started the same way: with one person turning toward another.
This is how we close the distance. This is how we rebuild what chronic loneliness and social isolation erode. This is how we begin again. Together.
IT STARTS WITH ONE CONNECTION
Not a grand gesture. Not a perfect moment. Just a single, human spark.
When someone reaches out, someone answers back. It’s so easy to believe chronic loneliness is too big to solve and too heavy to lift. But the moment one person feels seen, it softens and shifts.
One conversation can interrupt a spiral. One shared laugh can reset a day. One moment of understanding can remind someone they’re not alone in this world.
Connection is not rare. It simply must be built. Then, chosen and repeated.
Because every community, every movement, every meaningful change we’ve ever known started the same way: with one person turning toward another.
This is how we close the distance. This is how we rebuild what chronic loneliness and social isolation erode. This is how we begin again. Together.
Nearly half of American adults live with chronic loneliness. That’s one in every two people. We’re in the middle of a quiet connection recession, where something essential has been steadily depleted. If it isn’t touching you directly, it’s touching someone close: your partner sitting beside you but a little further away than usual; your parent waiting for a call; your child behind a closed door; your neighbor you pass without really seeing; your best friend who keeps saying they’re “just tired.”
It isn’t simply a feeling. Chronic loneliness settles into the body, elevating cortisol levels and creating prolonged inflammation that can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, cancer, anxiety, depression, and other negative health effects.
Chronic loneliness also wears down the mind, changing how people move through their days at home, at work, and in the world. The pain of chronic loneliness often drives people to self-soothing behaviors, such as drinking too much, drug use, overspending, overeating, gambling, and more. While the behavior feels good in the moment, it, paradoxically, leads to more isolation and pain.
Over time, the impact widens. Relationships strain. Communities grow thinner. The small, everyday connections that hold society together begin to fray. What starts as a quiet, individual experience becomes something we all feel.
THE CONNECTION RECESSION AFFECTS US ALL
1 in 2
American adults experience measurable loneliness. That's more than the combined populations of California, Texas, and Florida.
Source: U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory
32%
Loneliness increases early death risk by this much.
Holt-Lunstad et al., "Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality"
$460B
The cost of loneliness to U.S. employers from healthcare costs, sick days, absenteeism, and turnover.
Source: Foundation for Social Connection
~100
People in the world die every hour due to loneliness and social isolation.
Source: World Health Organization Commission on Social Connection
2.3x
Loneliness more than doubles the risk of developing depression
Source: Mann et al., "Loneliness and the onset of new mental health problems in the general population"
29%
Higher likelihood of lonely or socially isolated people to develop heart disease.
Source: Cené et al., Journal of the American Heart Association
18-34
The age range reporting loneliness at the highest rate.
Source: CDC
1 in 2
American adults experience measurable loneliness. That's more than the combined populations of California, Texas, and Florida.
Source: U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory
32%
Loneliness increases early death risk by this much.
Holt-Lunstad et al., "Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality"
$460B
The cost of loneliness to U.S. employers from healthcare costs, sick days, absenteeism, and turnover.
Source: Foundation for Social Connection
~100
People in the world die every hour due to loneliness and social isolation.
Source: World Health Organization Commission on Social Connection
2.3x
Loneliness more than doubles the risk of developing depression
Source: Mann et al., "Loneliness and the onset of new mental health problems in the general population"
29%
Higher likelihood of lonely or socially isolated people to develop heart disease.
Source: Cené et al., Journal of the American Heart Association
18-34
The age range reporting loneliness at the highest rate.
Source: CDC
OUR ROLE IN BUILDING CONNECTION
The Cost of Loneliness Project exists to create cultures of connection.
Not with just another awareness campaign, but by creating a movement. A movement that helps people recognize loneliness not as a personal failure, but as one of the defining human challenges of our time. Through convening, storytelling, and advocacy, we amplify the conversation around connection and inspire people, communities, and institutions to think differently about the way we live together.
We are helping catalyze a broader shift that encourages more care, more interdependence, and more belonging in everyday life. By bringing people together across sectors and experiences, we aim to cultivate the conditions where connection can grow stronger: at home, in communities, in workplaces, and throughout society itself.
We can’t do it alone. Join us and help create a kind of world where everyone belongs.
SHARE YOUR STORY
OF CONNECTION
Tell us how you and your community are creating cultures of connection.