State of Friendships: The First-Ever Meetup Measurement Report Reveals Global Stats and Insights on Hobbies, Interests and New Friendships

What, How and Where People are Meeting, and the Most Outgoing Countries, Cities and States

NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Meetup, the leading platform that connects people over shared interests at events, today revealed its Meetup Measurement Report, 2023. This inaugural report focuses on the state of friendships detailing the hobbies people have, what activities and interests bring people together, and insights into which countries, cities and states are the most outgoing. The report is based on actual behavioral data of those using Meetup. The platform has more than 60-million registered users organizing, searching, joining and attending in-person and live, virtual Meetup events.

The complete report can be downloaded at https://bit.ly/Meetup2023Report, and some of the themes include:

• Making friends remains top of mind
• The number of hobbies people pursue on average, and which hobbies are most popular
• Real Meetup stories of friendship
• Most outgoing countries, states, and cities in the U.S. and abroad
• Trending event searches and the most popular events

"As studies point to a loneliness epidemic, we felt a great responsibility to share what we know about the state of friendships," said David Siegel, CEO of Meetup. "Our global data and insights will be enlightening, encouraging, and hopefully, will serve as a reminder to those who feel lonely that new friends may be a Meetup event away."

People are pro-actively seeking connections, and this is indicated in the data. In the first 19 days of January 2023 compared to the same time in 2022, Meetup event registrations were up 14% and up by 37% from the same time in 2021. People are actively looking to get together in 2023, and they want to meet face-to-face. As the report reveals, 71% of all Meetup events were in person.

The State of Friendships: Meetup Measurement Report, 2023 looks closely at its data from the past twelve months, and going back to 2019 to view trends from pre-pandemic to today. Meetup shares its insights into the hobbies people have, the activities which bring people together, along with first-hand accounts of how adult friendships have been formed. Download the full report at https://bit.ly/Meetup2023Report, and below are a few highlights.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

In the past twelve months, Meetup has identified that people, on average, have 2.4 hobbies or interests and join five different groups to pursue those interests. To look into that more deeply:

• Most people focus on their #1 hobby with nearly six in ten people (59%) joining five groups within the same category of interest
• Nearly three out of ten people (29.25%) have two to four different hobbies or interests
• 12% have more than five hobbies or interests they'd like to pursue

What People Are Looking To Do

• Friendships are the hot topic - 2022 ended with "Friends" being the most searched term when looking for Meetup events. It used to be that friends were a by-product of Meetup events, and in a huge shift, people are now using Meetup with the intention of creating friendships, prioritizing the need to make friends over a particular hobby, interest or activity.
• Singles is back in the top 5 coming in at #4. This was the #2 most popular event search in 2019 (pre-pandemic), but during the pandemic, it dropped from its #2 spot to #6 (in 2020), and then it barely remained in the top ten in the #10 in 2021.
• Queer & LGBTQ is the #5 most popular event search in 2022 which was a huge jump from #135 in 2021
• Book clubs are back in the top ten of most searched events after a dip in 2021 to #12.  Previously, it was #8 in 2020 and in 2019; #9 in 2022

REAL STORIES OF NEW FRIENDSHIPS

There are thousands of real Meetup stories with people fostering new connections. The report showcases a few that represent some of the best in humanity. People who met at Meetup events and created true friendships, best friends, friends who have traveled the world, friends who have supported each other through crises, and relationships that resulted in marriage. Download the report to read a few of Meetup's favorite, real Meetup stories.

MOST OUTGOING COUNTRIES, CITIES, U.S. STATES

Of the 193 countries and 10,000 cities where Meetup is used, the report includes lists of those that are the most outgoing based on actual user data of people creating and registering for Meetup events. Below is an excerpt from the top 50 cities in the U.S  list. That complete list is found in the report, along with the following lists:

• Top ten most outgoing countries
• The most (and least) outgoing states in the U.S. and its territories
• The 50 most outgoing cities (U.S.)
• The 50 most outgoing cities (outside of the U.S.)

Top Ten Most Outgoing Cities (U.S. and territories)

Looking at America's cities that are the most active in organizing and attending events through Meetup, the Big Peach, Atlanta, leads the pack. A list of the top 50 cities can be found in the report, and below is an excerpted list.

1. Atlanta, GA
2. Palo Alto, CA
3. Mountain View, CA
4. Fort Lauderdale, FL
5. Marietta, GA
6. Santa Monica, CA
7. Orlando, FL
8. Boulder, CO
9. Cambridge, MA
10. Salt Lake City, UT

About Meetup

Meetup is the social media platform for finding and building communities of people who meet about common interests. Established in 2002, the company remains true to its mission of helping people grow and achieve their personal or professional goals through authentic, human connections. Meetup has more than 60 million registered members across 330,000 groups active in 193 countries and 10,000 cities around the world.

Meet people who share your interests or try something new by downloading the Meetup app or visiting Meetup.com (https://www.meetup.com/) where anyone can join for free with an email address. To organize a Meetup group please visit Meetup here, and for enterprise solutions visit Meetup Pro (https://www.meetup.com/pro). Follow Meetup on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook (@Meetup). 

METHODOLOGY

Meetup looked at its platform's event searches as an indicator of what people are looking to do in the near future, group searches as an indication of what people want to do long-term and for an ongoing basis, as well as the most popular events of 2022 and keyword searches. Meetup looked at its data across the past four years to create this report and also used public domain information on populations to create the per capita lists for countries, states and cities. 

SOURCE Meetup