The Covid Pandemic Left an Extra 13 Million Americans Single

When single adults gather in a room these days, the awkwardness can be overwhelming. “A lot of people have more anxiety now,” says Amber Soletti, the founder of Single and the City, an organization that puts on speed-dating events in New York and Austin. “They’re out of practice. They’ve forgotten how to engage with people face-to-face.”

The economic downturn precipitated by the pandemic was mercifully brief. But a new Stanford University study, along with recent government survey data, bolster the conclusion that the virus also sparked a recession in Americans’ social lives—one that lingers years after most US adults were vaccinated. For millions, dating and other social activity never recovered, with effects that aren’t just personal and psychological but economic and perhaps even political.