The states where Americans are most likely to know their neighbors by name

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The states where Americans are most likely to know their neighbors by name

If TV shows are to be believed, there are communities in the U.S. where people just walk into each other’s homes for a coffee or to hang out, no call ahead needed

While neighborhood potlucks and community get-togethers remain a steadfast part of American culture in some places, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate a decline in general goodwill among neighbors. The doorbell ringing used to be an exciting event. Nowadays, people shut the lights off when they hear the ding.

The share of American adults who say they actually know some or all of their neighbors has diminished heavily, but it hasn’t been a trend that’s evenly distributed. Some states still retain an element of that old camaraderie, while others have moved in the opposite direction.

AnyWho has leveraged various Pew Research Center tracking data to build a picture of the true national trend, alongside a state-by-state basis of exactly where neighborly familiarity still remains and where it’s long gone.

Why this matters now

As remote work has increased in a post-pandemic world, millions of people no longer travel to jobs in physical offices. Cross-region moves, where people have relocated from expensive coastal metro areas toward the South and Mountain West in search of lower costs and more space, are common.

Every one of those moves reset a household’s tenure to zero. This is important because household tenure is a direct predictor of whether someone is likely to know their next-door neighbor or not. And, as relocation becomes less about a short hop across town and more about starting over in unfamiliar land, the conditions that once built up friendly neighborhoods are unlikely to remain. For newcomers looking to break the ice, a quick people search can be a helpful first step — putting a name to the house next door before that first conversation ever happens.

The national baseline: What Pew's data shows

People seem to be growing apart on a national basis. The Pew Research Center has conducted in-depth studies on adults who are familiar with their neighbors:

Since 2010, they have periodically asked Americans about their neighbors and the trend in responses has solidly moved in one direction.

Back in 2010, 43% of adults said they knew all or most of their neighbors, but this fell to 31% in 2018 and further to 26% in 2025. The percentage of those who know absolutely none of their neighbors has stabilized over the seven-year period from 2018 to 2025, but it’s still a disheartening figure.

The same 2025 survey from Pew found that familiarity with neighbors and trust move together. About 44% of adults say they trust all or most of the people in their neighborhood, while 46% trust only some and 9% trust none. This is a decline from the 52% who trusted some or all a decade earlier.

Americans are still more likely to trust their neighbors than a general stranger, though, which suggests that neighborly ties haven’t disappeared completely.

Building the state-level index: methodology

To get a more granular look on a state-by-state basis, in order to see the impact of the decline in neighborhood familiarity, took a bit more investigation. To map neighborly connection geographically, AmeriCorps’ Current Population Survey Civic Engagement and Volunteering was pulled in as a supplement.

The survey tracked state-level rates of neighborly interactions annually over a six-year period from 2017 to 2023. It captures the share of residents in each state who report interacting with neighbors, whether through conversation or just looking out for each other.

Since the survey measures interaction and not the exact name-by-name familiarity that Pew uses, they are complementary sets rather than interchangeable ones.

What drives the variation

There are four factors that drive variation in the state-by-state spread of neighborly engagement:

• Length of residency: This is the strongest predictor. Neighborly familiarity is a function of time since it takes small and repeated interaction to build trust. Whether it’s a returned package, a wave from the porch, borrowing a tool, or something else, two households getting to know each other takes time.
• Housing type/density: Detached homes with a yard tend to produce more organic doorstep encounters than high-rise apartments with massive turnover.
• Regional/cultural factors: States with lower population density, longer average tenure, and community norms that prioritize informal mutual aid tend to report higher neighborly interactions as a function of the region.
• Remote work and mobility churn: As more jobs pull away from standard office buildings, some households move farther away, even across state lines. This resets the tenure clock in some neighborhoods, temporarily decreasing interactions in that area.

This heatmap shows the percentage of residents who report neighborhood engagement in their state:

Utah tops the list with 81.8% reported neighborly interactions. This is followed by Colorado at 80.5% and Montana at 79.1%. It aligns to the four dominant factors perfectly. These are a cluster of states that have low density and, in Utah’s case, unusually strong community and religious institutions that emphasize neighborly obligation.

Minnesota and Missouri round out the top five, both seeing reported interaction above 76%.

These are followed up by Delaware, Oregon, and West Virginia, all tied at 76.3%. This serves as a strong reminder that even though the four predictors of neighborly closeness have data backing them up, engagement isn’t uniformly tied to one single region.

Where it's still the norm vs. where it's vanishing

The map shows a clear pattern. Engagement runs high through the Mountain West and Upper Midwest. Connections among neighbors are much lower along both coasts and much of the Deep South and Southwest. Nevada and New Mexico both sit on the lower end of the range.

States that are closer to the top of the ranking tend to have slower population turnover and a larger share of homeowners who have been in their homes for years.

In fairness to some of the states featuring dense coastal metros and the Sun Belt boomtowns, the map shouldn’t be taken as an indication that people don’t want to know their neighbors. Many metros have seen an influx of people due to remote work, and it’s possible that they just haven't had enough time to get to know those around them.

What the research says about fixing it

The National Association of Realtors’ “On Common Ground” report from 2023 shows that residents consistently want walkable access to their daily destinations and convenient alternatives to driving. It is from this infrastructure that natural human interaction will occur. If you have to get into your car to drive everywhere, you’re far less likely to have one-off interactions with those in your neighborhood.

Academic research on neighboring behavior echoes the finding. As published in Social Indicators Research, incidental interaction is found more commonly and is intertwined with walkability and street connectivity. The fastest way to rebuild neighborhood familiarity in an area with a high turnover rate is investment in building parks and shared green space, anything that puts neighbors directly in the path of one another.

The future of neighborhood familiarity

No one wants to be holed up in their house all day and have no one to talk to. Yet none of the forces behind the decline in neighborly familiarity are likely to reverse on their own.

Remote work is here to stay. This means households that relocate will inevitably keep resetting the tenure clock. Even as the national average continues to tick lower, local municipalities can do their part to combat it by making neighborhoods more convenient for those living there. Whether building a park or creating new walking paths, it’s up to local governments to foster a sense of community to encourage small interactions between neighbors in a country built for driving.

This story was produced by AnyWho and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.