Social Capital Lab

Mapping the networks of friendship that shape life around the world.

[Social Capital Lab @soc_cap_lab]

We work with data from Facebook to measure the gender segregation of social networks.

[Social Capital Lab @soc_cap_lab]

Friendship Maps

[Social Capital Lab @soc_cap_lab]

Where in the world do people form cross-gender friendships? We analyzed over a trillion social ties between Facebook users to study the "Cross-Gender Friending Ratio" (CGFR) across nearly 200 countries and territories.

[Social Capital Lab @soc_cap_lab]

The Social Connectedness Index (SCI) quantifies the relative probability that two individuals from different geographies are Facebook friends, providing a large-scale measure of social ties across regions.

[Social Capital Lab @soc_cap_lab]

Today’s friendship links from Bakersfield, CA extend all the way to Oklahoma. Why? The Dust Bowl pushed Oklahoma and Arkansas families west in the 1930s. These “Oakies” shaped Bakersfield, inspired the Bakersfield Sound, and left behind ties that still connect them today.

[Social Capital Lab @soc_cap_lab]

The Illinois Central Railroad carried Black Southerners from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago during the Great Migration. A century later, the SCI shows those same Delta counties remain some of Chicago’s most over-connected distant communities today.