Silent Night(s): Millions Will Spend the Holidays Alone in 2025, Study Finds

Loneliness has quietly become one of America’s most widespread public-health issues – a chronic, grinding isolation that hits people year-round – but the holiday season magnifies everything. December is saturated with images of togetherness: family dinners, matching pajamas, full houses and overflowing calendars. For anyone spending Christmas alone — whether through distance, estrangement, work schedules or recent life changes — that contrast can feel brutal. Expectations about how Christmas “should” look turn private solitude into something that feels like failure, leaving many people dreading a day that is meant to feel joyful. AMFM Mental Health Treatment surveyed over 3,000 adults who live alone to understand how many expect to spend Christmas 2025 in solitude – and why. When extrapolated nationally, the findings suggest that a staggering 14 million Americans will be alone this Christmas.

States Where Christmas Will Be Quietest

#1. Wisconsin — 45,424 people spending it alone
#2. Tennessee — 56,286
#3. Louisiana — 56,743
#4. Minnesota — 72,213
#5. Maryland — 117,768

Why Are So Many Spending It Alone?

Respondents shared a wide range of reasons — from the logistical to the deeply emotional:

• 29% live far from family or friends and can’t make the trip
• 17% say travel is simply too expensive
• 20% are staying away due to family conflict
• 11% are tied up with work
• 16% say they actually prefer to spend Christmas alone
• 7% don’t celebrate Christmas at all

How Do They Feel About It?

While not everyone feels bad about a solo holiday, a significant portion carry emotional weight into the season:

• 25% say they feel lonely
• 22% feel sad
• 9% report being overwhelmed
• 7% are anxious
• 37% are simply indifferent

How They Cope

Some people have proactive plans to make the best of it, while others admit they will just see how it goes:

• 28% will watch holiday movies or TV to feel festive
• 19% plan to “treat themselves” with food, gifts, or self-care
• 15% will connect virtually with loved ones
• 8% will work through the day to stay busy
• 5% will volunteer or get involved in their community
• 3% are going away on a solo trip
• 22% say they have no plan at all

Perceptions and Fears

• 47% believe there’s still a stigma to spending Christmas alone
• 27% say Christmas 2025 may be their loneliest yet
• 59% agree that Christmas magnifies loneliness more than any other time
• 56% believe we are living through a “silent epidemic” of holiday isolation
• 38% would skip Christmas entirely if given the option

When asked what their biggest fear is about spending Christmas alone:

• 16% worry about feeling depressed
• 14% fear feeling forgotten
• 13% dread having no plans
• 11% fear having no one to talk to
• 6% feel embarrassed to admit it
• 40% say they have no fears about it at all

“We often think of Christmas as a time of joy, but for many people, it becomes a mirror for everything they feel they’re missing”, says Anand Meta LMFT (Executive Director, AMFM). “Loneliness doesn’t take a holiday, but neither does hope – and the more we normalize these feelings, the easier it becomes to reach out, speak up, or simply take the pressure off a ‘perfect’ Christmas.”