Social Connections
Enter your social circle size and compare it to Dunbar's number and generational averages. The results often reassure people.
Close friends — you have more than
50%
of people — research shows this predicts health outcomes better than total friend count
Your network vs. Dunbar's layers
Close friend distribution (support clique)
Dunbar capacity used
Your total network of 100 people uses 67% of your Dunbar capacity. You could maintain meaningful relationships with up to 150 people — most people only use 67% of that capacity.
Research finding: Close friend count predicts health outcomes better than total friend count. Having 3–5 close friends is associated with the same life expectancy benefit as not smoking. Online “friends” don't count — the brain can only maintain ~150 active social bonds regardless of technology.
Put It In Context
Robin Dunbar discovered his number by studying primate neocortex size. Larger brains correlate with larger stable social groups. Humans sit at ~150, chimps ~55, gorillas ~30. Dunbar's number isn't a ceiling — it's the cognitive limit for maintaining active social bonds that involve knowing how each person relates to every other person in your network. The number has been confirmed by studies of military units, hunter-gatherer bands, Christmas card lists, and online social networks.
Curiosity Trail — explore next