How mixed is the closest friend circle?

The full distribution for “How integrated is your close friend circle (top 5 friends) in terms of diverse cultural/religious backgrounds?” (n = 399) is: Homogeneous (All close friends share my identical faith background) — 40.6% (162); Moderately mixed (1 or 2 friends from another faith) — 31.8% (127); Highly pluralistic (Balanced friends from different faiths) — 27.6% (110).

The cohort is moderately concentrated on this question. One option leads without dominating, so the second and third answers carry real policy weight. The smallest recorded answer, Highly pluralistic (Balanced friends from different faiths), still represents 110 people — a group large enough to matter in programme design even at 27.6%.

These are self-reported answers from a community-recruited cohort of 399 young Keralites surveyed between 21 May and 28 June 2026. They are not probability-sample estimates of Kerala's youth population, and confidence intervals from random sampling do not apply.

Because 74.4% of respondents sit in one age band and 72.7% identify as male, subgroup differences are indicative at best. Cross-tabulated claims require a larger, stratified sample.

Finally, the survey measures single-point self-report, so it can establish association and scale but not direction or cause. Where this brief notes a pattern across two questions, that pattern is descriptive.