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28th January 2026
How many hours equal a friendship?
What does friendship mean to me? That was the question I was left pondering after my daily Medium diary entry on 27th January.
The facts and figures of friendship?
Psychology Today references a report published by a professor of communications, Jeffrey Hall, and the work of psychologist Robin Dunbar.
We usually are closest to no more than five people, call about 15 people good friends, and about 50 people friends. Famously, Dunbar found that 150 is a rough limit on the number of meaningful relationships our brains seem able to manage.
I would safely say I have a lot more than 150 acquaintances due to the nature of my job. 50 friends, maybe more, sounds about right. 15 good friends… maybe. 5 close friends seems accurate.
How mathematically accurate are my friendships? Hall’s findings put a specific number on the hours it takes to elevate a friendship up the aforementioned ranks.
He found that it took about 50 hours of interaction to move from acquaintance to casual friend, about 90 hours to move from casual friend to friend, and more than 200 hours to qualify as a best friend.
How you spend time with a friend and what you talk about is key to developing…
