How many mates will you keep over the next 10 years? If you are an Australian bloke in your twenties, there’s a good chance the answer will be: not many.

About one quarter of Australian men aged over 30 and under 65 have few or no friends, despite having mates in their twenties, according to research. A third say they want better relationships with men. Research published this week shows it's pretty much the same situation in the UK.

On the occasion of International Men's Day, there's talk of a crisis in Australian male friendships . . . or mateship.

Triple the number of men to women die from suicide in Australia each year. This ratio has been increasing since at least the 1960s.

Now the male health group Movember Foundation want ideas for ways to bring the Men’s Shed concept to a younger generation who never grew up around sheds.

“A mate of mine said I worked in tech my whole life - going into a shed isn’t necessarily appropriate for me,” says Movember’s Rhett Corker, who oversaw the research and is in charge of the foundation’s men’s health program.

It’s a bit of a crisis and there are not many good ways out there for guys to connect.

Men’s Shed is a community space for men to do work on practical projects like fixing an engine in the company of other men.

It’s designed to combat male isolation. According to Rhett, men tend to prefer to socialise “shoulder to shoulder” through an activity, such as sport, while women are more comfortable simply meeting for conversation.

The only problem is kids today don’t use sheds. Movember has opened a $5 million grant round across the UK, Australia and Canada for “disruptive ideas” to help blokes connect.

Think: not a shed.

Men tend to start losing mates around the age of 30, when they stop playing sport, move away from home and settle into a committed relationship. Not only do they lose friends, but they’re also not particularly good at making meaningful and lasting friendships, researchers say.

Despite the 1990s discovery of the new age sensitive guy, Australia men today aren’t necessarily any better at intimate male conversation than their dad . . . in the shed.

“A big part of disconnection comes from the shift in lifestyle,” says Rhett, who moved away from his home city at 25 and found it difficult keeping up old friendships.

“I use sports as an example. A lot of guys stop playing sport in our late 20s or early 30s - if that’s your only way of connecting with mates then it becomes difficult when you leave a club.”

“You make mates with people you work with but don’t necessarily become best friends. With school mates there can be awkwardness calling a mate out of the blue."

“If you look at rates of suicide for men - the highest rates are in the middle years."

He suggests finding a fun project for men to hang out "shoulder to shoulder"."

"Anything from sports to going to the beach," he says. "The thing that blokes struggle with is organising stuff. If you can make it easy and book it ahead of time, guys will usually show up.”

If this is bringing up issues for you, there's always someone you can talk to at Lifeline on 13 11 14. Or if you don't feel like picking up the phone, they also have an online chat service or check out ReachOut.