Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

All the lonely people: Why more of us will feel disconnected than ever before

All the lonely people: Why more of us will feel disconnected than ever before

Any loneliness "epidemic" is due to our increasingly aging population, according to two new studies, but that doesn't mean we should stop the fight against the trend.

But that doesn't mean we won't have a loneliness epidemic in the future, as the baby-boomer population continues to age and younger generations struggle with feelings of isolation.

"While the data show we don't need to worry, at this point at least, that our older adults are suffering loneliness at rates higher than they have been suffering in the past, the concern about loneliness is real," said lead author Louise Hawkley, a senior scientist at the nonpartisan research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.

"It has real consequences for health, for wellbeing, for cognition," she added. "So we can't ignore it. We just need to get smarter about how we deal with loneliness."


No loneliness 'epidemic'

Google "loneliness" and you'll see the word "epidemic" widely used. That got Hawkley and her team at NORC (formerly called the National Opinion Research Center) interested in looking at two national databases on aging to see just how true that was.

"Headlines have said there's been an uptick in loneliness, likely because research shows more people are not married, aren't civically or socially involved and are living alone," Hawkley said. "But our data found loneliness decreased from age 50 to about the mid-70s."

At that point, however, prior studies show that resilience to loneliness begins to decline. Loneliness peaks as people age into their 80s and 90s, or what's called the "oldest-old."

"It isn't until the losses begin to mount in much older age - the loss of health and mobility, the deaths of spouses, family and friends - that people begin to be unable to bounce back and loneliness spikes," Hawkley said.

The baby boomer population in the United States was born between 1946 and 1964 and totals about 75 million people. The oldest boomers are currently 73, the age in which research shows levels of loneliness begin to rise.

"That means the total number of older adults who are lonely may increase once the baby boomers reach their late 70s and 80s," Hawkley said.


A sense of control is key

A second study, based in the Netherlands, also found no current loneliness epidemic in a Dutch population aged 55 and older.

Despite the fact that social communities such as churches, neighborhoods and extended families have declined in strength in recent decades, the study found Dutch adults in their 50s and 60s were actually less lonely than prior generations, although the decrease was small.

Dutch adults from later-born groups had better cognitive functioning and more diverse social networks than those born earlier. While that wasn't surprising, the study also found that a sense of control -- or mastery -- over one's life had a significant impact on how lonely a person felt.

"Older adults today need to develop problem-solving and goal-setting skills to sustain satisfying relationships and to reduce loneliness," said lead author Bianca Suanet, an associate professor of sociology at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, in a statement.

In addition, Suanet suggested that public health interventions focused on loneliness prevention should provide tools and training to help older adults keep a sense of control over their lives, rather than just offering social activities.

"I'm not surprised by the findings," Hawkley said. "There's definitely a connection between a sense of autonomy that plays into feelings of loneliness."

She points to adult children who push their elderly parents into a community or nursing home facility against their wishes, and wonders if that might not be a disservice at times.

"They end up in a place where they haven't had a choice who they're living with and sometimes they don't get along with who they're living with. They're stuck," she said. " A sense of mastery over your life is critical at all ages of adulthood."

Other ways to assist an aging relative are to provide "opportunities to engage in the community, whether it's volunteering or being part of an activity group of some kind, even if it's the recreation center," Hawkley said.

And don't forget the role of social media. While research shows that social media is isolating for youth today, it's the opposite for the aging population.

"Older adults use social media differently than younger adults," Hawkley said. "They're using it to fortify existing relationships, not a place to discover new stuff. It's a place to connect with the grandkids that live on the other side of the country. "


Rising loneliness in youth

One concerning aspect not covered by these studies is the growing prevalence of loneliness among young people under age 25.

"There's really creditable evidence that we need to be worried about younger adults being lonely, and not just in this country, or maybe even lonelier than they have been in the past," Hawkley said.

A study of 1,200 people done by George Mason University in the US found one in three youth below the age of 25 felt lonely, while only 11% of adults older than 65 felt the same. Another study in the UK found 40% of youth 16 to 24 felt lonely "often or very often," compared to 27% of adults over 75.

"Our research shows that loneliness is a subjective mental state rather than an age-related symptom," said Stephanie Cacioppo, director of the Brain Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, in an email. "Loneliness does not discriminate. Everyone is at risk."

One of the benefits of age, Hawkley points out, is that you learn how to develop relationships that provide protection from loneliness and depression.

"You build up a repertoire of resources, you become resilient," she said. "You figure out a way of navigating this world and obtaining the kinds of social connections you need. And so loneliness levels peak in young adulthood and then they decline after that."


Will that happen for today's youth? Will those feelings of loneliness subside?

"That's worth worrying about because that's what they're taking with them into the rest of their life," Hawkley said.

"Are they establishing habits that will leave them deprived of the kind of social network they need to carry them through the rest of their life?" she wondered.

"And are they going to be amping up the rate of loneliness in future generations of older adults?"

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×