The Loneliness Epidemic

In the spring of 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness a public health epidemic, stating that nearly half of Americans were already lonely before COVID. While social media was supposed to bring us closer together, we have only grown further apart.

Fifty-two million U.S. adults report feeling lonely. 30% feel it at least once a week. 1 in 10 feels lonely every single day. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people experience persistent loneliness, and estimates it contributes to roughly 871,000 deaths every year. That’s more than many diseases we actively fund research for and campaign for education and awareness.

Yet, we’re not talking about it. Loneliness is still a taboo topic, something we only whisper about. We see it in the faces of those who’ve lost their partners of 30, 40, 50 years. We expect those people to be lonely. But we don’t expect young people to be lonely. How could they be? Their whole lives are ahead of them. But they are.

Younger Americans aged 18 to 34 report the highest rates of daily or frequent loneliness of any age group. Adults in their 40s and 50s are increasingly more isolated from work stress and caregiving responsibilities, with 4 in 10 adults over 45 now reporting loneliness — up from 35% in 2010. Seniors face a different but equally serious version of this crisis, one with life-or-death consequences.

Loneliness is spreading like a disease. Remote work minimizes in-person contact. Urban sprawl creates distance between neighbors. Church groups, bowling leagues, and block associations have thinned out, some even disappeared. Texting and messaging have killed phone and video calls.

Financial pressure plays a big part, too. Americans earning under $30,000 a year report chronic loneliness, nearly twice the rate of those earning over $100,000. And social media made things worse. Research consistently finds loneliness is more common among heavy social media users than light ones.

What makes this epidemic particularly dangerous is its silence. Loneliness slowly erodes a person’s spirit, health, and will to live. It extinguishes the human spark.

And it’s hard to spot. Nearly 3 in 5 Americans say no one truly knows them. That statistic should stop us cold. That’s 60% of the population that feels disconnected from others. Because we’ve normalized a quiet suffering that has become so widespread it feels like just the way things are.

Until we treat this with the seriousness of any other public health crisis, until the conversation becomes impossible to ignore at every level — from our schools and medical settings to Congress — we will not find solutions.

What Loneliness Does to a Person

Lonely people are more likely to die younger. People without a supportive social system are 35% more likely to die earlier than those with support.

And these numbers increase for people with existing health conditions. In one study, heart failure patients experiencing high levels of loneliness were three times as likely to die and 68% more likely to be hospitalized within a year than those with lower levels of loneliness.

In the nine-year English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), socially isolated older adults faced a 30% increased risk of developing dementia compared to those with regular social contacts. Do the math: if 60% of people feel disconnected and lonely and they have a 30% higher chance of developing dementia, we better start fortifying the health care system now.

The Surgeon General put it plainly: the health impact of loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

We make smoking a public health issue, yet we haven’t done any of that for loneliness. Why?

The Peaks of Loneliness

Research shows loneliness peaks three times in life — in our late 20s, mid-50s, and again in our 80s. That last peak hits when people have the fewest resources to fight back. Less mobility. Less income. Less access to technology.

Seniors

One in four older people worldwide experiences social isolation. And that number is underreported because we’re embarrassed to admit we’re lonely or don’t recognize it for what it is.

When seniors retire, they often lose contact with coworkers and work friends. By that time, the kids may have moved away or are busy with their lives. Their spouse gets sick, or dies. Driving becomes difficult. Their world gets smaller, year by year, until some of them are going days without speaking to another person. They are the forgotten generation. It’s tragic.

The Teens & Twenties

One of the great myths society tells young adults is that their 20s are the “time of their lives.” And ridiculous social media perpetuates this myth with fake, polished, perfect-only photos and stories.

So when they feel alone, they assume something is wrong with them. They don’t call it loneliness. They call it anxiety. They call it depression. They scroll instead of reaching out. It is a private embarrassment.

They go to college and get consumed by their studies, and get lost in all the meaningless parties. Everyone looks so happy, and many are overdoing drugs, alcohol, and sex to pump that dopamine and fill a void. Or they start work and sometimes have to work 60 hours a week in two jobs just to pay basic bills. There’s little time for socializing. And many jobs don’t have a pool of people to find friends they can relate to.

Young people aged 15 to 24 now spend 70% less time with friends in person than they did twenty years ago. What filled that gap? Screens. Messages. False narratives of perfect lives that make everyone else look like they’re doing fine.

They are the most digitally connected generation in history. And some of the loneliest people alive.

All Grown Up

The 50s! The kids are grown, and that’s supposed to free up time to enjoy life, do what we want, pick up new hobbies and interests. The career is established and income should be adequate and consistent, but all too often a regular 25 to 40-hour work week isn’t paying the bills and people have to work 60 and 70 hours to make ends meet. And sure, there is social contact at work, but it’s superficial — there’s no time at work, nor is it the place for meaningful conversations.

The daily rhythm of school pickups and activities has stopped. There’s no more chatting with other parents at games and events.

And marriages begin to crumble if they haven’t already. Dating, if there is time, becomes an arduous process full of insecurities and unknowns.

They’re also frequently the ones sandwiched between aging parents who need care and adult children who still need support. They are perpetually needed and rarely nourished.

Nearly half of adults in their late 40s and 45% of adults in their 50s report feeling lonely — rates higher than any other age group. This is another generation nobody is talking about.

They’re not forgotten the way seniors are; they’re just overlooked. That’s lonely.