Policy Brief "Loneliness"

Policy advice is a central component of FReDA. In our regular Policy Briefs, we take up current research findings on socially relevant topics and use them to develop recommendations for policy and practice. In the latest Policy Brief from May 2024, Sabine Diabaté, Lena C. Frembs, Till Kaiser and Martin Bujard looked at the topic of "loneliness". The authors registered a significant increase in feelings of loneliness, observed marked differences between different population groups and identified various "protective and risk factors".

One in three affected by loneliness

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have experienced a sharp rise in feelings of loneliness. However, although lockdowns and massive contact restrictions are now a thing of the past, the prevalence of this painful feeling has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Over the past five years, there has been a significant increase in loneliness among adults aged 18 to 53. While loneliness remained fairly stable between 14 and 17 percent from 2005 to 2017, it jumped to 40.9 percent at the start of the pandemic in 2020. In the most recent population-representative loneliness measurements in 2022, it fell slightly to 36.4 percent. However, one in three people still stated that they were affected by loneliness.

Loneliness has serious consequences

Chronic loneliness is considered problematic and is seen as a challenge for society as a whole. There are two reasons for this: Individually, loneliness is associated with numerous health risks: among other things, lonely people are more likely to suffer from sleep problems, they have a higher risk of coronary heart disease, strokes or heart attacks and have a reduced immune system.

In addition to these individual health risks, lonely people also have a higher risk of isolating themselves and becoming politically or religiously radicalized, for example. Increasing loneliness can jeopardize the internal social cohesion of a society and thus represent a risk factor for democracy.

Women and men are lonely in different ways

The authors differentiate between emotional and social loneliness. They define emotional loneliness as the lack of a close, familiar relationship. Social loneliness, on the other hand, is the lack of friendships and other personal relationships. The analysis shows that social loneliness is significantly more common than emotional loneliness and that women are more likely to be emotionally lonely, while men are more likely to be socially lonely. They observed different risk and protective factors for both forms of loneliness.

Emotional loneliness

Risk factors

• Female gender
• Not gainfully employed
• Living alone without other adults in the household
• Limited health status

Protective factors

• High education
• Relatively very good income
• German nationality
• Daily internet use

Social loneliness

Risk factors

• Living alone without other adults in the household
• Unemployment
• Place of residence in eastern Germany
• Limited health status
• Degree of urbanization: smaller town or suburb

Protective factors

• Female gender
• Medium or high education
• Relatively / very good income
• German nationality
• Religiousness
• Younger adults more at risk of loneliness

The "risk and protective factors" from 2021 have hardly changed for the winter of 2022/2023. Particularly striking is the high perception of loneliness among those living alone and single/separate parents of over 50 percent - two groups that appear to be under considerable and lasting psychological strain. Furthermore, younger adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are significantly more frequently affected by loneliness than middle-aged adults. Apparently, a new risk group has formed here, whose loneliness is still at a worrying level even after the pandemic.

Loneliness increased in younger and middle age

Overall, there are marked differences between the various population groups in terms of loneliness and various "protective and risk factors". The results point to risks that essentially comprise socio-economic status (income, education, employment), living situation (single/separate parents and people living alone) and nationality or migration background.

Another major risk of loneliness comes from long-term poor health. These aspects can interact unfavorably with each other, meaning that groups of people in which several of the risk factors mentioned are present at the same time can be assumed to have a particularly high probability of loneliness. It is important to take a closer look at these population groups in the future.

The detailed analyses and calculations can be found in the policy brief "Loneliness has increased in younger and middle-aged adults", which FReDA published in May 2024. You can download the policy brief here (german).