A majority of New York men surveyed by a mental health treatment provider reported experiencing loneliness, placing the state roughly in the middle of a national ranking of male loneliness.
According to a survey commissioned by California-based mental health treatment center A Mission for Michael (AMFM)
, 58% of New York respondents reported regularly feeling lonely, ranking New York 26th among states included in the study.The findings come as broader research suggests men are less likely than women to seek emotional support from friends.
A 2025 Pew Research Center report found that 38% of men said they would be extremely or very likely to turn to a friend for emotional support, compared with 54% of women.
AMFM said Louisiana ranked first in its
survey, with 83% of respondents reporting regular loneliness. Oklahoma, Oregon, Wisconsin and Michigan rounded out the top five. Delaware and Nebraska reported the lowest percentages, at 20%, according to the survey.
The survey's authors also identified long-distance truck drivers, security guards and night-shift hotel receptionists as the loneliest occupations among New York respondents.
One in five men said they have nobody to confide in
Asked how many people they could talk to about a personal problem, 20% of survey participants said they had nobody they felt comfortable confiding in. Another 32% said they had one trusted person, while 39% reported having two or three confidants and 11% said they had four or more.
AMFM said having multiple sources of support can be important when one person is unavailable or dealing with challenges of their own.
The survey also found that many men rarely discuss their emotions in depth.
About one-third of respondents, 33%, said they had a meaningful conversation about how they were feeling within the previous week. Another 24% said they had one within the last month. Fourteen percent said their most recent meaningful conversation occurred one to three months earlier, while 6% said it occurred three to six months earlier. Eleven percent said it had been more than six months, and 15% said they could not remember ever having such a conversation.
Men report barriers to discussing loneliness
The most commonly cited reason for hesitating to talk about loneliness was not wanting to burden someone else, selected by 20% of respondents.
Other common barriers included embarrassment (15%), a belief they should handle problems on their own (15%), concern that they would appear weak (12%), and a feeling that others would not understand what they were experiencing (11%). Nine percent said they did not know how to begin the conversation, while another 9% said they had nobody they felt comfortable telling.
Only 8% of respondents said nothing would make them hesitate to discuss their feelings.
Who do men turn to for support?
Most respondents said they would first seek support from a spouse or partner.
According to the survey, 36% said a spouse or partner would be their first choice for emotional support, followed by a friend (26%) and another family member (21%). Seven percent said they would first turn to a mental health professional.
Smaller shares said they would first seek support from an AI chatbot (5%), a colleague (3%), a faith or community leader (3%) or an online community (2%).
The use of AI for mental health support is becoming more common, according to the American Psychological Association.
In a 2026 survey of more than 1,200 licensed psychologists, 33% reported having patients who use AI to assist with therapy or treatment, while 35% said patients were using AI as an additional mental health professional. The APA cautioned that AI is not a safe or effective replacement for care from a qualified mental health provider.
Among psychologists whose patients had developed a relationship with a chatbot, 36% reported noticing some level of dependency and 15% reported discussing or observing distorted thinking or delusions related to chatbot use.
Friendships remain important
Despite widespread reports of loneliness, many respondents said they were satisfied with their social connections.
Forty-two percent said they were happy with their friendships. Another 17% said they wished they were closer to their friends, while 11% said they struggled to find enough time to maintain those relationships.
Eight percent said they had no close friends and wanted to make some, while 12% said they had no close friends but were comfortable with that situation.
Work can contribute to — or distract from — loneliness
The survey found many men use work as a refuge from personal challenges.
Forty-one percent said they had stayed at work longer than necessary because they did not want to return to an empty home.
At the same time, some respondents identified workplace conditions as contributors to loneliness. Seventeen percent cited long working hours, another 17% said they felt too drained to socialize after work, 14% said they worked alone for much of the day and 11% pointed to unpredictable schedules or shift work.
Nine percent said personal conversations felt uncomfortable in the workplace, while 5% of respondents in leadership positions said the responsibility of managing staff or a business felt difficult to discuss with others.
Methodology
The survey was commissioned by AMFM Mental Health Treatment and conducted among 3,004 men nationwide by research firm Cherry Data Signals, according to the study materials. The publicly available summary does not provide state-level sample sizes or margins of error for individual state rankings.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: New York men rank 26th for loneliness in national survey. Here's what it found
