The health insurer Cigna recently published results of a nationwide survey of 20,000 people, showing that most Americans are lonely.

More than half of survey respondents — 54 percent — said they always or sometimes feel that no one knows them well. Fifty-six percent reported they sometimes or always felt like the people around them “are not necessarily with them.” And 2 in 5 felt like “they lack companionship,” that their “relationships aren’t meaningful” and that they “are isolated from others.”

The results were more pronounced among younger people.

Members of Generation Z, born between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, had an overall loneliness score of 48.3. Millennials, just a little bit older, scored 45.3. By comparison, baby boomers scored 42.4. The Greatest Generation, people ages 72 and above, had a score of 38.6 on the loneliness scale.

Loneliness has been shown to be a contributor to heart attacks, strokes, and premature death.

Read more at NPR.

The full report is here.

This study is an indictment of the shifts in our culture away from meaningful friendships and relationships, and toward shallow, ephemeral ones.

It also provides a challenge for people of faith. Here is an opportunity for churches to alleviate that loneliness and provide a source of community.