NEW YORK – This year’s country happiness rankings have the United States sinking to its lowest position yet — 24th, down from a high of 11th in 2012’s inaugural survey.
As a potential indicator, the authors of the “World Happiness Report 2025” at the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, referenced the exponential rise in the number of Americans eating alone.
“It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of well-being than expected,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, the research center’s director and the report’s editor. “In this era of social isolation and political polarization we need to find ways to bring people around the table again.”
Bringing people together at mealtime has long been a priority of FMI, the Food Industry Association, which since 2015 has organized a “National Family Meals Month” each September. It’s a communications campaign that provides grocery retailers with a unified theme and turnkey promotional tools to encourage consumers to lean on their local supermarket for solutions that foster more family meals at home.
The initiative has evolved into a broader “National Family Meals Movement,” a year-round program at FMI that encourages families to share more meals together, “however it is that they define family,” says David Fikes, executive director of the FMI Foundation, which develops tools to promote family meals.
Resources include a Family Meals Modular Toolkit, with assets that can be incorporated into marketing, communications and publicity campaigns, as well as Table Talk Placemats, adorned with mealtime conversation-starters – “If they made a movie of your life, who would you like to star as you?”
“We believe family meals are the foundation for a healthy nation,” Fikes asserts. “Family meals deepen connections, and improve communications skills, expressiveness, and even problem-solving abilities. What’s more, our latest research finds that 63% of consumers say that eating in good company is part of their notion of eating well.”
FMI report: Shoppers embrace food routines and shared meals this fall
Americans continue to enjoy grocery shopping, cook more at home, and embrace mealtime traditions that bring people together.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2023 found that a quarter of Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day, an increase of 53% from two decades earlier.
The FMI Foundation surveyed grocery shoppers this year about their food-related challenges. Common responses included conflicting schedules, poor communication, lack of time together, and instilling healthy eating habits. “The good news is, all of these are things that family meals can help address and solve,” Fikes said. “And despite the challenges, consumers tell us that family meals are worth the effort. Fifty-nine percent tell us the benefits of family meals outweigh the costs in terms of time and money.”
The foundation also asked whether people consider America to be more civil or less civil than it was a decade ago. About 70% said less civil.
“We thought, this is something family meals can help address,” Fikes says. “Because family meals are a great time for families to teach civility, have those conversations wherein you teach respectful interaction and such. So we’re trying to move the needle a little bit toward making America a more civil society.”
Fostering personal happiness and social connections
Released in May, “World Happiness Report 2025” focuses on the impact of caring and sharing on people’s happiness. An entire chapter is devoted to an exploration of how sharing meals supports happiness and social connections.
“Social connections are not only important for individual health and happiness, but also for societal health and happiness writ large,” according to the authors.
Among the report’s findings:
• Data for 142 countries and territories collected by Gallup in 2022 and 2023 reveals stark differences in rates of meal sharing around the world. These differences are not fully explained by differences in income, education, or employment.
• Sharing meals proves to be an exceptionally strong indicator of subjective well-being – on par with income and unemployment. Those who share more meals with others report significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and positive affect, and lower levels of negative affect. This is true across ages, genders, countries, cultures, and regions.
• In the United States, dining alone has become more prevalent for every age group, but especially for young people.
