Gallup’s latest State of the World study shows that more than one in five people worldwide (23%) reported feeling lonely “much of yesterday.” Findings that also highlight the serious physical and mental health impacts that frequent feelings of loneliness can have.
Experiences of loneliness vary widely across countries, from a high of 45% in Comoros to a low of 6% in Vietnam, but people feel it everywhere. The proportion of adults who feel lonely exceeds 30% in 22 countries, more than half of which are in Africa.
Within countries, loneliness varies little between demographic groups, including gender and age. However, in a significant number of countries, the oldest age group (50 and over) is at least 10 percentage points more likely than the youngest age group to report feeling a lot of loneliness.
No country therefore seems immune to this problem, which is increasingly seen as not only a personal but also a public policy challenge.
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