Happiness Tuesdays

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

Loneliness can affect anyone. Experiences of loneliness can vary, but its effects can be profound and wide-ranging. It is considered by many to be one of the largest public health challenges we face.

• In 2022, 49.63% of adults (25.99 million people) in the UK reported feeling lonely occasionally, sometimes, often or always [1]
• Approximately 7.1% of people in Great Britain (3.83 million) experience chronic loneliness, meaning they feel lonely ‘often or always’ [2].
• This has risen from 6% (3.24 million) in 2020, indicating that there has not been a return to pre-pandemic levels of loneliness [2]. Read more about the covid-19 pandemic and loneliness.

The latest facts and statistics about loneliness help us to understand more about the risk factors and the impact it can have on different areas of our lives.

By increasing the evidence base, we can help to inform policy and practice to address loneliness.

Overview

Defining loneliness

The definition of loneliness that we use is: 

Loneliness is ‘a subjective, unwelcome feeling of lack or loss of companionship. It happens when there is a mismatch between the quantity and quality of the social relationships that we have, and those that we want’ [3]

This definition draws on Perlman and Peplau’s understanding of loneliness. They use the cognitive deficit model, which views loneliness as ‘a discrepancy between one’s desired and achieved levels of social relations’ [4]. This perspective emphasises the significance of desired versus actual social connections, so it helps us distinguish loneliness from social isolation.

We therefore understand loneliness as an emotional experience: a perceived deficiency in the amount and/or quality of someone’s existing relationships.

Types of loneliness

There are different types of loneliness. The following three are the most commonly identified in evidence and literature on loneliness [5]:

• Emotional loneliness – ‘the absence of meaningful relationships’
• Social loneliness – a ‘perceived deficit in the quality of social connections’
• Existential loneliness – a ‘feeling of fundamental separateness from others and the wider world’

Other types of loneliness can include: 

• Transient loneliness – a feeling that comes and goes
• Situational loneliness – only occurring at certain times like Sundays, bank holidays or Christmas
• Chronic loneliness – feeling lonely all or most of the time

Social isolation

Loneliness is linked to social isolation but it is not the same thing. While loneliness is an emotional experience, isolation is a lack of social contact. 

Loneliness is a subjective feeling, whereas isolation is an objective state. Social isolation is about the ‘level and frequency of one’s social interactions’ [6]. It is defined as ‘having few social relationships or infrequent social contact with others’ [7]. 

Feeling lonely is not necessarily the same as being alone. Some people can spend lots of their time on their own and still feel content. Others may be surrounded by people but feel disconnected from them and lonely.

What Works Centre for Wellbeing

Loneliness and mental health

Loneliness is not a mental health problem in itself. However, loneliness and poor mental health are interlinked, each can worsen the other [8] and as such, they are closely interlinked. Meanwhile, social connectedness is associated with better mental health [9].

Poor mental health can lead to loneliness [10]. On the other hand, loneliness can negatively impact mental health [10; 11]. In our Psychology of Loneliness report, we discuss how loneliness and mental health can affect each other, as well as psychological approaches that can help alleviate loneliness. 

As well as impacting our mental health, loneliness can affect our physical health. You can read more about the health impacts of loneliness.

Experiencing loneliness

Loneliness is a negative emotional experience [12]. It indicates an unmet need for social connection. People who are lonely might experience unwelcome feelings of isolation, sadness, and disconnection.

According to the UK government’s Tackling Loneliness strategy review, reported loneliness is higher for people who [13]:

• are 16-24 years old
• are female
• are single or widowed
• live with a limiting mental health condition
• are renting
• have lower neighbourhood belonging 
• have lower local social trust

Experiences of loneliness can differ in their intensity. This can change from moment to moment, over different durations of time, and in different contexts. 

Loneliness in the workplace is still quite under-researched, but is important to consider given the amount of time people spend at work. A recent study found that [14]: 

• Around 1 in 10 workers feel lonely at work often or always, and nearly half experience loneliness at work some of the time 
• Recent changes to working patterns means that 19% of workers now work from home, and 24% are hybrid working. But this doesn’t seem to have exacerbated loneliness. Changes in working location during the covid-19 pandemic led to improved relationships for many.
• There is little evidence to suggest that more contact with colleagues leads to less loneliness at work, as loneliness is subjective and distinct from isolation.

Certain factors can increase our risk of loneliness. These include personal characteristics like age, ethnicity, or disability, and circumstances like living alone, going through significant life changes, or living in certain areas. Read more about the risk factors for loneliness.

Impacts of loneliness

We can all feel lonely sometimes. But prolonged and/or intense experiences of loneliness can have negative impacts on our lives. It can affect our health and wellbeing:

• Loneliness can increase the risk of early mortality by 26% [15]. 
• Loneliness can put people at greater risk of poorer mental health, including depression [16].
• There appears to be an association between mental wellbeing and loneliness: research estimates that 60% of people experiencing chronic loneliness experience mental distress, compared to 15% of people who are not chronically lonely [17].
• 62% of lonely young people say that ‘feeling lonely makes them lose confidence in themselves’ [18].
• Research shows that loneliness is associated with elevated blood pressure and acute stress responses [19].
• Loneliness is associated with ‘poorer sleep quality’ in young adults [20] and ‘sleep inadequacy and dissatisfaction’ in the general population [21].

And it can also impact our engagement with education and employment: 

• Loneliness in early adolescence is associated with lower educational attainment [22].
• 48% of lonely young people say that feeling lonely makes them ‘less likely to want to progress in work’ [18].
• Higher loneliness levels among employees is associated with poorer work performance [3]. 
• A recent study estimates the cost of severe loneliness at around £9,900 per person per year, due to its combined impact on wellbeing, health, and work productivity [23].
• It has been estimated that loneliness costs UK employers £2.5 billion a year, due to its impact on employee sickness, caring activity, productivity, and voluntary staff turnover [24].

References 

[1] Campaign to End Loneliness with Dr Heather McClelland (2023) Analysis of quarterly report data provided by the ONS from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey for Jan-Dec 2022 using a representative sample of people aged 16 and over in Great Britain. Note: an average of 2,625 participants engaged with the ONS Opinions during each wave of the Lifestyle Survey over this period.

[2] Campaign to End Loneliness, The State of Loneliness 2023: ONS Data on loneliness in Britain (2023).

[3] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, A connected society: a strategy for tackling loneliness (2018).

[4] D. Perlman and L. Peplau, ‘Toward a Social Psychology of Loneliness’ in Personal Relationships: 3. Relationships in Disorder, ed. by R. Gilmour and S. Duck (London: Academic Press), pp.31-56 (p.32).

[5] L Mansfield et al. A conceptual review of loneliness across the adult life course (16+ years): Synthesis of qualitative studies, What Works Wellbeing (2019), (p. 2; 18; 36).

[6] Hwang et al. ‘Loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic’, International Psychogeriatrics 32.10 (2020), pp. 1217-1220.

[7] Wu, B. ‘Social isolation and loneliness among older adults in the context of COVID-19: a global challenges’, Global Health Research and Policy 5.27 (2020).

[8] Mental Health Foundation. All the lonely people (2022), (p.11).

[9] Holt-Lunstad, J. ‘Social Connection as a Public Health Issue: The Evidence and a Systemic Framework for Prioritizing the “Social” in Social Determinants of Health’, Annual Review of Public Health 43 (2022), pp.193-213.

[10] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Mental Health and loneliness: relationship across life stages (2022).

[11] Mind, Loneliness, (2019), (p.2).

[12] C. Goodfellow et al, ‘Loneliness and personal wellbeing in young people: Moderating effects of individual, interpersonal, and community factors’, Journal of Adolescence 94.4 (2022), pp. 554-568, (p.555).

[13] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Tackling loneliness evidence review: executive summary (2023).

[14] K. Jopling, H. McClelland and E. Proffitt. Loneliness at work, British Red Cross (2023) (pp.7-11).

[15] J. Holt-Lunstad et al., ‘Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review’, Perspectives on psychological science 10.2 (2015), pp. 227-237.

[16] NHS Digital, Health Survey for England, 2021, Part 2 Loneliness and wellbeing (2023).

[17] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Investigating factors associated with loneliness in adults in England (2022).

[18] Co-Op Foundation, A Friend in Need (2022).

[19] E. G. Brown, S Gallagher and A. Creaven, ‘Loneliness and acute stress reactivity: A systematic review of psychophysiological studies’, Psychophysiology 55.5 (2018).

[20] T. Matthews et al., ‘Sleeping with one eye open: loneliness and sleep quality in young adults’, Psychological Medicine 47.12 (2017), pp. 2177-2186 (p.2182).

[21] S. C. Griffin et al., ‘Loneliness and sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis’, Health Psychology Open 7:1 (2020).

[22] R. Jefferson, M. Barreto, L. Verity and P. Qualter, ‘Loneliness During the School Years: How It Affects Learning and How Schools Can Help’, Journal of School Health 93.5 (2023), pp.428-435.

[23] S. Peytrignet, S. Garforth-Bles and K. Koehane, Loneliness monetisation report: Analysis for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (2020) (p.1).

[24] New Economics Foundation and Co-Op Foundation, The Cost of Loneliness to UK Employers (2017) (p.v).

The Search for Happiness

Do you “recharge your batteries” from alone time or from being with others?