Young people feel loneliness the most However, in contrast, the young report feeling lonely much more – with 40% saying they have felt this way at least some of the time. The BBC Loneliness Experiment surveyed 55,000 people and showed that 16–24-year-olds feel loneliness the most.
Brazil had the highest percentage of people experiencing this, with 50 percent of respondents declaring that they felt lonely either often, always, or sometimes. Turkey, India, and Saudi Arabia followed, with 43 percent to 46 percent of respondents having experienced loneliness at least sometimes.
Published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a study found that people's expectations from interpersonal relationships undergo considerable changes as they age — resulting in them often feeling lonelier as they grow older, even if they're not alone.
The study included over 55,000 people and found that 34% of 25-34 year olds are lonely 'often or very often' while 36% of 34-44 year olds felt the same.
Explore Things Around You
You might get out to a local park or shopping center or even to a nice city block. You could take a trip out to another city or even a country that you have never been to before. In addition to keeping yourself active, concentrating on your health can help you to meet other people.
One in four Australian adults feel lonely, and the impacts can be dire. Loneliness increases our risks of depression, diabetes, dementia, self-harm and suicide.
People most frequently experience peak loneliness at three key periods of their lives, according to new research published this week in the journal International Psychogeriatrics. Researchers found that people reported moderate or severe loneliness most often in their late 20s, their mid-50s, and their late 80s.
Seventy-three percent of Gen Z report feeling alone either sometimes or always—the highest level of any generation. The mental health challenges experienced by Gen Z are like nothing any other generation has faced.
Gender differences are common in self-reported emotional experiences. Women report greater affective intensity (Fujita et al., 1991) and experience negative emotions, such as fear more frequently (Brebner, 2003; Fischer et al., 2004).
On the general scale, women have reported having higher levels of loneliness than men. Except for one category: single men are the lonelier group compared to single women. Women are more socially minded and are therefore able to better maintain close relationships than men.
Women report experiencing loneliness more often than men
They were significantly more likely than men to report feeling lonely “often/always”, “some of the time” and “occasionally” and were much less likely than men to say they “never” felt lonely (Figure 2).
To most people, loneliness is not a word that meshes with introversion. Everyone knows that introverts value their alone time almost more than anything else. As Susan Cain wrote in Quiet, “Solitude matters, and for some people, it's the air they breathe.”
While being alone and feeling alone are not the same thing, the effect on longevity is similar. The BYU study found that social isolation and living alone were even more harmful to a person's health than feelings of loneliness, increasing mortality risk by 29% and 32%, respectively.
The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they don't wish to see anyone else suffer the way they did.”
Many people romanticize their 20s as the best time in their lives and so much pop culture is wrapped up in the glory of this decade in life, but what is not often talked about is how incredibly lonely they can be. For many young people, loneliness peaks in their 20s after they graduate from a college or university.
In fact, young adults are three times likelier to feel lonely than older age groups, says a study from the Office for National Statistics. From experience, I found that it hit me hardest in my early 20s.
Michael Collins, known as the “loneliest man in history” for being the often-forgotten astronaut who stayed aboard Apollo 11 and orbited the moon alone while his teammates took man's first steps on the moon, died Wednesday at age 90, his family said.
Young adults are at particularly high risk, with 37–50% of people aged 18–24 reported to be lonely. Parents, particularly single parents, older people and people who live alone are also more impacted. It is also an issue among minority groups.
Psychologists generally consider loneliness to be a stable trait, meaning that individuals have different set-points for feeling loneliness, and they fluctuate around these set-points depending on the circumstances in their lives.
Some people, it turns out, really are less susceptible to loneliness while alone . Or, more specifically, some people have already been living the conclusion of a recent study: that spending time with other people isn't the only way to feel a sense of belonging.
If you are dealing with long term loneliness, the kind that doesn't go away, talk to your doctor or another health care provider so they can help. Chronic loneliness is not just about feeling alone; if left unchecked it can put you at risk for serious physical and emotional issues.
To reiterate, it's absolutely fine to want to remain single, if that's what you really and truly want. Some people are happy being on their own and your status needs no explanation to others. You can always review the situation if and when you feel ready. On the other hand, some people are lonely on their own.
People can become socially isolated for a variety of reasons, such as getting older or weaker, no longer being the hub of their family, leaving the workplace, the deaths of spouses and friends, or through disability or illness.