If you think about when you easily had the most friends, chances are you will call up one of two times: when you're in your early 20s or at midlife. I say this because I think we kind of naturally have a lot of friends early on when we go out in the world, and as we work and get married and have kids, we find it harder to make new friends. Therefore, it wouldn't be until we were perhaps older and even retired that we would go back to this notion of meeting a variety of people and making new friends.
One study seems to support this. The Daily Mail says that at the age of 21, we have almost 100 friends. I'm trying to picture this, and I have to say at 21 I doubt I had that many. But still, they say that the "typical 21 year old's social circle nearly hits 100, with 13 'best' friends, 17 'close' friends and 70 acquaintances." I guess of this set of numbers, the "13 best friends" is really what blows me away. When I think of best friends, I think of people you are really, really close with, and my mind seems to limit this number to maybe three. This doesn't mean you can't really have up to 13 best friends, of course, but it seems a little high to me.
What about you? Did you have this many friends when you were 21?