The Loneliness Epidemic

Loneliness is a serious public health problem. Research suggests that more than 1 in 3 Americans face “serious loneliness,” including 61 percent of young adults and 43 percent of adults over 60. While Americans have been experiencing a loneliness crisis for many years, loneliness has increased substantially since the outbreak of the global pandemic.

Loneliness makes other social and health problems worse. Research shows the mortality risk associated with chronic loneliness and social isolation to be higher than that of obesity and equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day. In addition to early mortality, loneliness causes a wide array of serious physical and emotional problems, including depression, anxiety, heart disease, substance abuse, and domestic abuse.

Leading health experts, including Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, call loneliness a public health concern: a root cause and contributor to many of the epidemics sweeping the world today from alcohol and drug addiction to violence to depression and anxiety. He states that loneliness not only affects only our health, but also how we interact within various communities – from school to workplaces – and can lead to societal division and lessened civic engagement.

We’ve seen this problem coming. The pandemic was the tipping point. Experts have talked for decades about declining participation in institutions that bring us together: community and civic groups, organized religion, neighborhood public schools, etc. Instead of connecting us as promised, social media isolated us in online factions and took us away from real life interactions. And Covid kept us apart from friends, family, and neighbors.

You feel it, too. This is real, it affects all of us, and it’s shattering society.
We can find solutions. There is good research that shows how we can reconnect and be less lonely. Small-scale projects around the world show positive results and point toward a less isolated future. Our job at the Loneliness Institute is to support this work and ensure that the best solutions reach the most people.