There is no loneliness epidemic – so why do we keep talking as if there is?

By Brendan Kelly, Professor of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin

Most people experience periods of loneliness, isolation or solitude in their lives. But these are different things, and the proportion of people feeling lonely is stable over time. So why do we keep talking about an epidemic of loneliness?

Before the COVID pandemic, several studies showed that rates of loneliness were stable in England, the US, Finland, Sweden and Germany, among other places, over recent decades.

While COVID changed many things, loneliness levels quickly returned to pre-pandemic…

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