Most people were looking for something deeper than casual chat.
Genuine friendships was selected by 4,385 of the 5,415 completed profiles in this analysis, or 81.0%. Emotional support was selected by 2,591 profiles (47.8%), while 2,471 (45.6%) selected local meet-ups.
The options were multi-select, so these are overlapping needs rather than competing categories. Somebody can want genuine friendships, emotional support and real-world plans at the same time.
The community itself was the most common place people wanted to begin.
When completed profiles chose a starting path, 3,788 people selected Community, equal to 70.0% of the sample. That suggests many adults preferred to enter through a broader community space before moving into a more specific action.
The public headline does not show the complete path distribution or prove why each person chose that route. Those tables and the deeper participation interpretation sit in the full report.
Public proof stays open. The complete decision layer sits in the full report.
This page publishes the strongest headline findings, the sample, methodology, privacy boundary and limitations so the research can be checked and cited responsibly.
The full report contains the complete safe looking-for and starting-path tables, deeper interpretation, organisational implications and slide-ready charts. That layer is licensed by request rather than released as an unrestricted CSV or full JSON export.
Wanting local connection and wanting emotional support can sit in the same community.
Nearly half of completed profiles selected emotional support and nearly half selected local meet-ups. That is useful context for community design: adults may arrive because something feels difficult while also wanting ordinary friendship, activities and plans.
A friendship community therefore has to make room for support without making support the member's only identity or only route into other people.
Methodology and privacy.
This is a frozen analysis of 5,415 Lifted Spirits profiles marked as having completed onboarding when the report was produced. Every profile in the sample had at least one looking-for selection and one starting-path value, so 5,415 is the denominator for every percentage on this page.
The profiles in the sample were created between 15 December 2024 and 12 August 2026. Lifted Spirits is UK-based and the sample is predominantly UK, but the community also includes adults outside the UK and geography was not used as an inclusion rule for this report.
Only aggregate category counts were used. No names, locations, bios, messages, journals, support conversations or individual-level records are published. Categories below the public reporting threshold are withheld rather than surfaced simply because they exist in the underlying taxonomy.
- Population: completed Lifted Spirits profiles in the frozen report snapshot
- Sample size: 5,415
- Profile creation range: 15 December 2024 to 12 August 2026
- Analysis date: 12 August 2026
- Looking-for field: multi-select, so percentages do not add to 100%
- Starting-path field: one selected route per completed profile
- No private messages, journals, support conversations or individual records used
Limitations.
This is a Lifted Spirits community sample, not a nationally representative survey of UK adults. People who join a friendship and peer-support community may have different needs from adults who never seek a community like this.
The answer options were defined by the Lifted Spirits onboarding taxonomy. These figures should be used to understand this sample and inform better community questions, not to claim that 81.0% of all UK adults are currently looking for new friendships.