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A Data for Progress replication of earlier lifestyle surveys found that 12% of Americans reported hosting friends or family at home at least monthly in 2026, down from 42% in 1975. The figures point to a long decline in home gatherings and broader face-to-face socializing, though the report offers possible explanations rather than proving what caused the change.
12% of Americans said they hosted friends or family at home at least once a month in 2026, down from 42% in 1975, according to survey findings from Data for Progress reported by Derek Thompson. The comparison shows a decline in monthly home hosting alongside decreases in several other social activities.
Data for Progress replicated questions from the DDB Needham Life Style surveys used in earlier research on Americans’ social connections. Thompson said the group shared its findings with him. Combining the older and newer surveys, he reported that the share of Americans who hosted friends or family at home monthly fell by 30 percentage points between 1975 and 2026. The report describes this as a 70% decline over roughly half a century.
The decline extends beyond hosting. The newer survey comparisons showed double-digit declines over about 30 years in measures such as playing cards, attending sporting events, going to bars, volunteering and working on community projects, Thompson wrote. Since 1995, the share who said they had hosted guests or attended a dinner party declined by about 20%, according to his account of the findings.
Earlier data show that the change was already under way by the late 20th century. Between 1975 and 1998, the share of Americans who gave or attended a monthly dinner party fell by half, while the share who said they never entertained at home tripled, Thompson reported, citing the DDB Needham survey. The article does not publish detailed methodology or margins of error for the 2026 comparison.
Home Visits Have Become Less Common
The survey measures indicate that fewer Americans report gathering in private homes monthly. Other cited measures also show declines in several in-person social activities. These findings describe specific activities and do not establish how often people see friends in other settings.
Thompson notes that restaurant dining has not clearly replaced home gatherings, citing reporting that more people are eating alone. He also notes that activities such as exercising or attending concerts do not necessarily involve social contact. The survey comparison does not establish whether socializing has declined equally among all groups or identify a cause.
From Dinner Parties to Fewer Visits
The 2026 comparison extends a decline that Robert Putnam discussed in his 2000 book, Bowling Alone. Putnam examined evidence of shrinking civic and social participation and warned that visiting friends could disappear from American life if the trend continued. Thompson’s report revisits that concern using a replication of earlier survey questions, rather than relying only on the older figures.
The original report also sets the change against mid-century portrayals of social life. Novels and plays of the 1950s and 1960s often placed domestic drama in living rooms, and half of Americans said they entertained guests at home monthly until 1975, according to the DDB Needham data cited by Thompson. That literary image is not itself evidence of how often people gathered, but the survey figures provide a measurable contrast with the present.
Causes and Survey Limits
The findings establish a reported decline in the survey measures, but they do not establish why it happened. Thompson offers several possible explanations, including increasingly time-pressed leisure and the redistribution of household scheduling work as more women entered paid employment. These are interpretations and historical arguments, not causes demonstrated by the survey comparison.
The report excerpt does not provide the sample sizes, question wording, weighting, margin of error or full methods for the 2026 replication. The 1975, 1995 and 2026 comparisons span different periods and survey operations, so readers cannot assess from the excerpt alone how comparable every measure is. It also remains unclear whether the decline differs by age, income, household type or region.
Further Survey Detail Is Needed
The next step for evaluating the comparison is access to the full Data for Progress survey report and its methodology, including the exact questions and breakdowns by demographic group. Those details would show how the 2026 results were collected and how closely they match the historical measures.
Until that information is available, the reported figures offer a broad snapshot rather than a complete explanation of Americans’ social lives. Further data could clarify whether home hosting continues to fall, which groups are driving the change and whether people are maintaining regular in-person contact through other activities.
Key Questions
12% said they hosted friends or family at home at least monthly, according to the comparison reported by Derek Thompson.
How does that compare with 1975?
The reported share fell from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026, a decline of 30 percentage points. Thompson describes the relative fall as 70% over about 50 years.
Does the report explain why home hosting declined?
No. Thompson discusses possible explanations, including time pressure and changes in who handles family scheduling, but the survey comparison does not establish a cause.
Are Americans socializing more in restaurants instead?
The report argues that the decline is not clearly offset by public gatherings. It points to wider drops in several social activities and cites reporting of increased solo restaurant dining, but the excerpt does not quantify a complete shift across settings.
Source: hn
