A significant number of people also don’t have close friends and family nearby. 32% of people do not have close family members in their community, and 29% do not have close friends in their community. This and other factors impact people’s ability to connect with friends and family members, especially in person. About one in five people haven’t seen or spoken on the phone to any of their close friends or family in the past month.
TRUSTING AND SUPPORTING NEIGHBOURS
Trust is lower if people don’t feel financially secure, they are living with a disability, they have poor mental or physical health, they’re a single parent, or they’ve experienced discrimination.
Social trust is faith in people. We have social trust when we expect people to have kind motivations, we assume people have integrity, we are willing to be vulnerable and rely on others, and we give people the benefit of the doubt when we interpret their actions. When communities build social trust, they build social connections.
When people have faith in the reliability and integrity of those around them, they feel they have people they can depend on. But 13% of people rarely or never feel they have someone they can depend on to help them when they really need it. A lack of people they can depend on creates a lack of social trust.
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