As a sociologist, I’ve long been interested in how social structures shape our lived experience. Humans are social beings. We are meant to be surrounded by others, to collaborate with others, and to support each other. At the core of social connection research is the idea that we need each other to survive and thrive.

As the population of older adults in the United States grows, understanding social wellness—the sense of feeling connected with others and part of a community—during this life stage has become a growing priority. Loneliness and social isolation can negatively affect individuals’ physical and mental well-being. Older adults are especially at risk because life transitions, such as the loss of a spouse, retirement, or limited mobility, can lead to a loss of social interactions or support.

The Mather Institute, an industry leader in aging and wellness research, approached NORC to study how neighborhood-level factors contribute to social wellness among adults ages 55 and up. Chicago’s patchwork quilt of unique neighborhoods created the perfect setting.

NORC has deep expertise in research on loneliness and health among older adults. Senior fellow Louise Hawkley is a nationally recognized expert, which led the Mather Institute to contact NORC about collaborating to map social wellness across 77 Chicago neighborhoods. We worked closely with Mather’s researchers and were committed to centering older adults’ experiences and perceptions in a rigorous way.

The social wellness map builds on NORC’s work on the National Social Life, Health & Aging Project, a field-leading study of the intertwined trajectories of health and social lives later in life. Through that project, we’ve tracked two cohorts of older adults and documented trends in loneliness. We’ve found that the social wellness of older adults in the United States is generally good, but there is still a need to reach those who need support.

Humans are programmed to feel lonely at times. But for older adults who are unable to address their feelings of loneliness, it can lead to impaired health and well-being. Geography is a powerful factor shaping how easily someone can seek out and foster different types of social relationships, which is essential for their social well-being.

The project allowed us to dive more deeply into individuals’ experiences at the community level. We were able to leverage city-wide, publicly available administrative data and break them down by community. We surveyed more than 4,000 adults ages 55 and over, with an average of 50 respondents per neighborhood, to obtain a sample representative of each Chicago community.

We used these data to create two composite scores, one for social wellness, and one for community connectability, which reflects how much a neighborhood facilitates social wellness. Our data visualization experts also built interactive maps that enable Chicagoans, community leaders, and policymakers to interact with the data and understand their communities’ strengths and needs.

The results yielded unexpected insights. We’ve all seen maps of social trends, such as crime, across Chicago neighborhoods where wealthier neighborhoods on the North Side diverge from less wealthy enclaves on the South and West Sides. Social wellness does not map the way those other measures do. It maps more randomly, and some communities we expected to have higher scores did not, while others we anticipated would have lower scores exceeded expectations.

That was fascinating, and it motivated us to start untangling the factors contributing to older adults’ social wellness across Chicago. As expected, scores were boosted by green space and access to places where residents could interact with neighbors or meet with friends, such as stores and recreation areas. Crime rates, and the perception of higher neighborhood disorder, detracted from scores.

But the impact of some factors, such as the availability of third spaces designed to facilitate social interaction and connection, was less straightforward. Some densely populated neighborhoods with dozens of cafes reported lower social wellness than less-populated areas with just a few cafes. Maybe older adults don’t need 50 coffee shops, maybe just two.

The newly redeveloped Near West Side of the city has a ton of amenities but lower social wellness scores. Few people have lived in the neighborhood for long, and there is high resident turnover. It may not have the community feel that other, more established neighborhoods do.

On the North Side, we were surprised that Rogers Park did not have a higher level of social wellness or community connectability. It may have been due to its younger population, including university students, many rentals, and high turnover.

Adult social wellness across Chicago’s neighborhoods is much more nuanced and multifaceted than we initially expected, especially when you consider the powerful effect of community belonging as a part of social wellness. Chatham, a historically Black, middle-class neighborhood on the South Side, had a high social wellness score despite having more limited resources and amenities than other neighborhoods with lower scores.

Beverly, a racially diverse and tight-knit South Side community, had the highest connectability and a high rate of community belonging. Addressing community belonging is tough, but it’s an often-missed opportunity to address loneliness and social isolation.

The rich survey data we collected also helped us understand how individuals perceive and experience their environments, which is as important as the built environment when considering feelings of connection. For example, individuals who perceived their neighborhoods as less safe and clean had lower social wellness than those who perceived their community as safer and cleaner. Aside from actual crime rates, if you perceive your neighborhood to be in poor condition, you are probably less likely to get out of the house and engage with your neighbors.

Conversely, social wellness was higher in neighborhoods where residents reported greater trust in and support for one another, and where people were more likely to have lived in the area for longer periods and own their homes. This pattern likely reflects the strengthening of community bonds over time, fostered by ongoing social interactions and opportunities to connect and participate in community life.

Mapping social wellness across Chicago allowed us to use this new, innovative, rigorously designed and developed measure of community connectability.

• Policymakers can use the map to explore why some neighborhoods might not meet expectations and why others are exceeding them.
• Community leaders can learn from successful communities what to prioritize to boost older adults’ health and well-being.

I hope the map inspires other studies that will allow us to build on what we’ve created.

I am now working with NORC’s Sherry Emery and Social Data Collaboratory to explore what social connectedness looks like in the digital age. Using data donation, we are exploring social media data to determine how they map onto other measures of social connectedness and how social media usage affects loneliness.

Spending time online may not replace having close, wonderful friends. But for those who cannot leave the house, or those without close friends, it may serve as an important mode for social connection. It may also provide a community: someone to turn to about caring for an ailing parent, or people who share your interests. Online interactions may be another source of connection in older adults’ lives that add to their well-being and that we can track alongside neighborhood-level factors.

We hope to use these new data to help fill gaps in the field. Before we developed the social wellness and community connectability scores, there wasn’t a validated way to assess social connectedness at the community level and what that means to individuals. We hope we can continue to use this tool to deliver new insights on meeting the social needs of this growing population.