Think back to primary school: the chances are you hinged a lot of your self-esteem on how many birthday parties you were invited to (just us?), and even as adults, we’re bombarded by the narrative that a big group of friends is essential. From #BestieGoals on TikTok to romanticised Hollywood depictions of friendship, just how big should our friendship group be?

Well, that depends. After conducting extensive research, Robin Dunbar, anthropologist and professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford, believes that 150 is the magic number. But before you choke on your cuppa – don’t panic, he’s talking about social connections rather than deep and meaningful friendships.

Following his study of primates and brain size, he concluded that our ability to handle social connections is limited to between 150 and 200, dubbed ‘Dunbar’s number’. Interestingly, this number has historical and evolutionary significance, being roughly the size of hunter-gatherer groups and the average Christmas card list (if not Facebook friend groups).

This is how many friends we need, according to experts (and it’s not as many as you might think)