Loneliness more likely for young adults: report

survey: Under-35s more prone to being lonely than over-55s

Young adults are more likely to feel lonely than older people, despite having many more “digital friends”, a report suggests.

Nearly nine in 10 people (89%) aged between 18 and 34 have felt lonely at some point in their lives, compared with seven in 10 (70%) over-55s, a survey from Nationwide Building Society suggests.

People aged 18-34 have an average of 103 online friends – around four times the 27 online friends that over-55s have typically, the research found.

The younger age group also has 17 friends who they see offline typically, compared with an average 12 for the older age group.

Twice as many people in the 18-34 age bracket said they feel lonely all the time compared with those aged 55 plus, at 8% compared with 4%.

The survey of 2,000 people also found that generally, people who always feel lonely are much more likely to have fallen victim to a financial scam.

Romance scams, lottery or prize draw scams, energy saving scams and clairvoyance scams were among frauds people who always felt lonely said they had fallen for.

Common reasons for people feeling lonely were that they lacked confidence, felt depressed, found it hard to make friends or found it difficult to meet likeminded people, the survey found.

Chad Rogerson, Nationwide’s head of customer vulnerability and diversity, said people who feel socially isolated can sometimes be more willing to respond to a stranger on social media or via email.

He said: “While human contact is essential and should be encouraged, particularly where feelings of isolation are involved, we’d always urge people to be mindful of the risk of falling victim to a scam.”

Nationwide is taking part in an industry campaign called Take Five, which encourages people to pause for thought before responding to requests.

The research also found that on average, Britons have 65 friends online compared with 14 “traditional” friendships.

A quarter (25%) of those surveyed said they spend more time interacting on social media than in person.