You probably think that high school or college is when you've hit the height of your social activity. That's when you're in close proximity to all of your friends, you've always got a party to hit up and you don't have those social interaction-sucking responsibilities of going to work, taking care of your family and paying those bills, bills, bills.
In actuality, you will probably be the most popular at age 29, according to a recent survey. Food firm Genius Gluten Free surveyed 1,505 British people and found that just before we turn 30, we have an average of 80 friends. This is because we're still young enough to keep in touch with our friends from school and old enough to have become friendly with our co-workers. Now we'll pause so that you can count how many friends you currently have.
The survey also found that the average person has 64 friends. Does that number make you feel better or worse about your friend count? The research shows that our buds more often come from the workplace than from school because we have more in common with co-workers, who we spend most of our waking hours with and who may be better able to understand the demands of a job.
"We wanted to understand how friendships are born in the office and interestingly it appears that the long hours and high pressured situations we often find ourselves in at work with colleagues actually help us form strong friendships," said Genius Gluten Free Founder Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne.
While this research was conducted using responses from Brits, it's likely that we would find similar results among Americans. When we transport these findings across the pond, they become especially interesting, considering that 23-year-olds are now the largest age group in the U.S. with 4.3 million people. Your friends are generally the same age as you, or at least close in age. By that logic, you would think that as a 23-year-old, you would have more friends than at any other age in your life simply because there are just more people you are likely to be friends with. Plus, at that age, you've just graduated with your college friends, you haven't lost touch with your high school friends yet and you're really getting to know your co-workers at your first job.
But we all know that there really isn't any rhyme or reason to friendship. The heart wants what it wants, after all.
