No new friends: Average American hasn't acquired a friend within 5 years, survey finds

LOS ANGELES - The average American seems to have a hard time making friends and hasn’t made a new one in the last five years, according to a recent survey conducted for Evite.

Evite, a company that allows users to create and send digital invitations to events, had the research conducted by OnePoll in which 2,000 Americans were asked about making friends.

Forty-five percent of adults surveyed said they have a difficult time making new friends. The survey also showed that the same percentage of people said they would go out of their way to make new friends if they knew how or had more opportunities.

On average, most people appeared not to have made any new friends within the last five years.

According to the survey, there were three main reasons cited for why making friends could be difficult for adults. Forty-two percent said it’s hard because they’re introverted or shy, 33 percent said they don’t like to go to bars which groups of people frequent and another 33 percent said they already have established friend groups.

The New York Post reported that the research also indicated other reasons people chose not to make new friends: 29 percent said they had family commitments, 28 percent said they didn’t have any hobbies that allowed them to meet new people and 27 percent moved to a new city.

But those polled had a circle of about 16 friends, with three of them being best friends, five being good friends and eight people who the surveyor liked but didn’t go out of their way to spend one-on-one time with.

Those polled also had about 50 acquaintances and 91 social media friends, on average.

Three in 10 people surveyed said they’d made lasting connections with people they’d met in their childhood neighborhood, according to Evite.

Most of the people surveyed said they remained close with friends they met at a young age, while nearly half said they’d stayed friends with people from high school. Thirty-one percent said they’re still friends with people from college.

But 82 percent of people surveyed said they feel like lasting friendships are hard to find.

The main cause of lost friendships appeared to be moving away, with 63 percent of people revealing that’s why they’ve fallen out of touch with a former friend, according to the New York Post.