It has been called an epidemic, a pandemic and even a plague. And, now with the results of the first ever global study of loneliness, a partnership between Gallup and Meta that looked at the ”The Global State of Social Connections” in 142 countries, we are able to verify just how widespread and how much of a risk loneliness can be.
Regardless of where we are in the world, for the most part, results show that one in five of us is feeling lonely, a lot of the time. Along with that, it comes as not much of a surprise that when we’re lonely, we also feel worse in other ways. Many of us report increased negative emotions that rise up alongside the loneliness …like sadness, worry, stress and anger. Some participants claim that there are heightened experiences of physical pain as well.
No country was immune. Globally, individual experiences related to loneliness are fairly similar when it comes to age and other demographics with men and women feeling equally lonely. Where differences peak are when exploring the oldest age group (those 50 and older) compared to the youngest. Gallup reported that the oldest groups are actually 10 points more likely than the youngest age groups to be lonely. Broadly speaking those individuals surveyed who were not married, or in a domestic partnerships, and those who were struggling financially, reported that they are feeling lonely much more often.
Also of interest, working adults were shown to be less likely to experience loneliness than those who were unemployed. However, when looking at employees from around the world one in five reported experiencing some degree of loneliness in the previous day. This data comes from Gallup’ new “State of the Global Workplace 2024” report where researchers also share data related to job levels. Apparently, a person’s job level seemingly has little association with their loneliness level. What was clear…. fully remote employees claimed significantly higher loneliness levels (25%) than those who work exclusively on site (16%). Hybrid workers fall in between at 21%.
The ramifications that go along with this loneliness data are huge according to Gallop Senior Scientist, Lisa Birkman who, along with her colleagues found that “the risk of mortality among people who lacked community and social ties was two times greater than that of people who had many social contact. These differences were independent of physical health, socio economic status and health practices. In the end, it seems, loneliness is not just a personal challenge but a public policy one as well.
What’s to be done? You can read Donna Carter’s review on page 16 of RCCM Winter 2024.
