Washington DC is the LONELIEST city in the US while Fontana in California is the least lonely, Chamber of Commerce data reveals - as 36million Americans are recorded as living alone
- The nation's capital is the loneliest city to live in America
- Around half of DC's 319,000 households are occupied by one person
- Nine out of the ten least loneliest cities are in California with Fontana topping the list
- The research was conducted by the Chamber of Commerce
- Last year, a separate study found that Florida and Maine where the loneliest states in the country to live
The nation's capital has been named as the loneliest city in America, according to a new study from the Chamber of Commerce.
The survey goes on to reveal 36million Americans - over ten percent of the population of the entire country - are living alone.
On the other end of the spectrum, Fontana, in southern California's Inland Empire, has been named as the least loneliest place to live where just 11.1 percent of residents are on their own.
The conclusions were drawn from the census data of over 170 cities with populations of over 150,000. The loneliness measure was based upon how many households in the city had just one occupant.
In Washington DC, almost half of the 319,565 households are one-person. That number has increased by nearly six percent over the last six years.
In Washington DC, almost half of the 319,565 households are one-person. That number has increased by nearly six percent over the last six years
Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau named DC as the America's work from home capital with 48.3 percent of employees working remotely.
Rounding out the top five loneliest towns are St. Louis, followed by DC commuter towns Alexandria and Richmond, Virginia, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
St. Louis remains second on the list despite seeing the number of single person households decrease by 3,000 between 2021 and 2022.
A city that's getting lonelier is Boston, which despite coming in at 30 on the list, the research notes: '[Boston] appears to be getting lonelier. 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 are on their own. 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 living alone.
The fastest rising city for male loneliness was Fort Collins, Colorado, which saw a 14.2 increase in men living alone over the last year. The Rocky Mountain state's capital, Denver, comes in at 27 on the list.
The city of Fontana, shown here, is the least loneliest place in America to live
St. Louis remains second on the list despite seeing the number of single person households decrease by 3,000 between 2021 and 2022
The city seeing the biggest rise in female loneliness if Gilbert, Arizona, which saw an increase of 18 percent between 2021 and 2022.
In 2022, the average age for marriage for men was 30, for women it was 28.
Of the ten least loneliest cities in America, nine are in California, the list is topped by Fontana, Oxnard, Moreno Valley and Elk Grove. Despite this, research found that Pasadena, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Irvine saw some of the biggest increases in single person households.
The fact roommates are nearly a necessity in California, where rents are the third highest in the country, behind only Hawaii and New York, could have factored into the study's results.
The only city outside of California that is among the least lonely, is Garland, Texas, on the outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
A For Rent sign is posted in Sacramento, California, high rents make roommates a necessity in the Golden State
California ranks only behind New York and Hawaii in terms of high rates of rent
The study comes as nationwide, 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 done earlier this year by AginginPlace.org. The least loneliest states were Utah and Alaska.
The data for that study did incorporate single person households but also the number of people in the state who were on dating apps and who were widowed and divorced.
Maine has the highest rate of divorce, 14 percent in the country, while many of Florida's aging population are widowed.
Aging in Place's Steve Harker told Forbes in November that one of the reasons that Utah ranked so highly on the list was the state's close-knit Mormon community while Alaska has the lowest widowed rate in the country.
The Aging in Place study placed the District of Columbia, where Washington DC is located, at tenth on their list.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Medical Association decreed that loneliness was a public health issue. While the World Health Organization said that quarantine had induced a 25 percent rise in anxiety and depression worldwide.
A 2022 TimeOut survey found that worldwide, the loneliest cities were Stockholm, Sweden, followed by Copenhagen in Denmark and Sydney, Australia.
While a 2021 Harvard Graduate School of Education study of 950 Americans found that 61 percent aged 18-25 said that they felt loneliness. The number among other age groups averaged out at 36 percent.
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