Visiting neighbors just isn’t our thing any more

In 2016, the share of Americans who say they “never” socialize with their neighbors hit an all-time high of 34 percent, according to the General Social Survey. That number’s been rising steadily since 1974, when just 21 percent said they never hang out with their neighbors.

The communities we choose to live in play a significant role in how much we interact with our neighbors. You might expect that densely populated cities foster neighborly friendships, but in fact th those living in cities are the most likely to avoid spending time with their neighbors completely, while those in small towns and rural areas are the least likely.

We often think of cities as fertile grounds for social interactions between neighbors and acquaintances who spontaneously bump into each other on the street, sharing news, gossip and camaraderie. But the numbers above suggest that a sizable portion of citydwellers are determined to avoid interacting with the people who live nearby — or, perhaps, that the circumstances of their lives are so hectic as to forestall most neighborly interaction.

Still, compared to 40 years ago neighborliness is waning in small towns just as much as it is in big cities.

There are a lot of different factors driving this trend, as outlined in a 2015 City Observatory report. We spend more time indoors, watching TV. The wealthy have walled themselves off in gated communities. “Space and experiences became more private, fueled by suburban expansion, large lots, and the predominance of single-family homes,” the City Observatory’s authors write.

Trust is declining too. The General Social Survey’s data show that the share of Americans saying most people can be trusted has fallen from nearly 50 percent in the 1970s to just over 30 percent today.

That lack of trust extends to our neighbors: In 2016 nearly half of Americans told the Pew Research Center that they trust only “some” or “none” of their neighbors. Mirroring the numbers on social interactions above, the survey found that people in rural areas were most trusting of their neighbors, while those in urban areas trusted their neighbors the least.

These trends may be selfreinforcing: we trust our neighbors less because we’re interacting less frequently with them, and we’re interacting less frequently with them because we trust them less.