Lacking social connection is as dangerous to health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day and twice as risky as consuming six alcoholic drinks daily. This is the stark warning from the US surgeon-general, Vivek Murthy, who has released an advisory urging public officials to take loneliness as seriously as matters such as obesity or drug abuse.
Up to one in four people in the US report experiencing prolonged loneliness, while in the UK, 6% of people said they felt lonely “often” or “always” in the year to September 2022, and 19% reported feeling that way “sometimes”. Analysis published last year suggested that loneliness “at a problematic level” was a global issue. The evidence that it is damaging physical as well as mental health has amassed steadily, with one overview of 70 studies finding that it put people at 26% higher risk of early mortality. The impact on public services and the economy (research has suggested it costs employers in the UK as much as £2.5bn a year) is prompting governments to take some interest in what had previously been regarded as a private problem.
Loneliness, the subjective experience of a gap between desired and actual social contact, is not synonymous with isolation, the objective lack of interaction with others. The two are related, and both rose in the pandemic. But it is possible to mix with many people and feel lonely, or to be happily alone. Young people in both the UK and US are much more likely to feel lonely than elderly people, despite having much more social contact.
Both interaction and the feeling of meaningful connection depend on more than an individual’s willingness to reach out. As Prof Andrea Wigfield, director of the Centre for Loneliness Studies at Sheffield Hallam University notes, social factors – which can range from the built environment to the attitudes of others and the use of technologies – play a critical part. Disabled, LGBTQ+ and BAME individuals are more likely to report frequent or prolonged loneliness than others are. Residents of the most deprived areas are more likely to have high scores of loneliness than those in the least deprived areas.
The Jo Cox commission on loneliness did important work to highlight the problem, prompting Theresa May, then prime minister, to appoint the world’s first minister for loneliness. Yet so far, government efforts have seemed largely tokenistic. While some work has been done to reduce stigma, there is little sign of progress on the key objective of ensuring the issue is considered in policymaking and delivery. Community initiatives and “social prescribing” – in which GPs help people sign up for activities – are helpful but they do not go to the root of the problem.
Local authorities, best placed to do this work, have seen their budgets slashed over years of austerity. Opportunities for people to meet and build relationships have vanished as libraries, youth centres and swimming pools have shut, and green spaces have become less well-maintained and welcoming. Structural changes, not just new clubs or services, are needed to reduce the sense of unwilling aloneness that many feel. These cannot be effected by volunteers, such as those taking part in the royal Big Help Out. They must be made by governments, which should recognise that they are necessary not because of the strain upon the economy or services – but because a society cannot be successful without the wellbeing of its people.
