People who share more mealtimes with others are more likely to report higher levels of life satisfaction and wellbeing, finds research led by a UCL academic for the World Happiness Report.
In chapter three of the report, Sharing Meals with Others, the researchers from UCL, University of Oxford, Harvard University and Gallup found that meal sharing as an indicator of self-reported wellbeing was on a par with income and employment status. The findings go across all ages, genders, countries, cultures and regions.
Overall, the researchers found that countries where people share meals more often usually report higher levels of life satisfaction. Compared to people who dine alone, those who always share lunch and dinners report, on average, one extra point in their life evaluation, on a scale from 0 (worst possible life) to 10 (best possible life), which the researchers say is a big gap. By way of comparison, if UK residents reported one extra life-evaluation point, the UK would be the second happiest country in the world (this is currently Denmark, after Finland). This pattern also holds true when looking at people within the same country and even after accounting for age, income or living arrangements.
The researchers say that how often someone shares meals is as strong an indicator of levels of life satisfaction and positive emotions as their income band is and can reveal more about their wellbeing than knowing if they are unemployed.
Co-author of the chapter Dr Alberto Prati (UCL Arts & Humanities) said: “This is the first time that data on meal sharing has been collected and analysed at a global scale. We already knew how important social connections are for wellbeing, but we were surprised by the strength of the connection of meal sharing with positive life evaluations and emotions.”
The team used data from the Gallup World Poll, in which over 150,000 respondents were asked about their wellbeing and the frequency of sharing meals with people they know during the last week. The data were collected from 142 countries in 2022 and 2023.
Countries across Latin America and the Caribbean reported sharing the highest number of meals in a seven-day week, sharing nearly two thirds of lunches and dinners (nine meals). Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand were second, sharing on average just over eight meals a week. By contrast, countries in South Asia reported sharing fewer than four lunch and dinner meals over a week, while East Asia reported sharing nearly six in a week. People in the UK shared on average 7.5 lunch and dinner meals per week, averaging out at 4.2 dinners and 3.3 lunches.
The authors used the USA as a case study to look at the recent evolution of sharing meals. To this end, they used data from the American Time Use Survey and analysed trends around meal sharing and dining alone in the USA from 2003 to 2023. People in the USA are now more likely to dine alone than they were 20 years ago, which the researchers say is driven by young people being more likely to share fewer meals with friends and family.
The authors speculate that this could be linked to long-running trends around changes to social structure over time and a general decline in social capital – community cohesion and connections with others that form a functioning society – in the USA.
Researchers noted in particular a rise in the number of Americans dining alone, with 26% of American adults reporting eating all of their meals alone on the previous day, which was an increase of over 50% since 2003. Adults over 65 are more likely to eat alone, although since 2018 the rates of those under 35 eating alone has risen at a sharper rate. The researchers speculate that the recent acceleration, from early 2020 onwards, could be attributed to enforced changes in social behaviour following the pandemic.
Dr Prati added: “We believe that these findings have useful policy implications and highlight the number of shared meals as a promising yet understudied comparative index for social research.”
The World Happiness Report is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.
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