Nearly half of us only socialise with friends and family once a month

NEARLY half of Britons socialise with family and friends only once a month or less, a new survey has found.

According to the Sainsbury’s Living Well Index, the lack of human interaction with close associates is causing the nation’s sense of well-being to dwindle.

Approximately 8,000 people were surveyed on everything from their sex lives to quality of sleep, finances, relationships and jobs, with an average “wellbeing score” of 60.4 out of 100. The figure is 0.38 points lower than last year, which the report said was equivalent to a well-being decline associated with a £260 (or 18 per cent) fall in the average monthly income.

Nearly one in 10 (9.1 per cent) people said they never met friends, relatives or co-workers socially, while 21.4 per cent said they did so less than once a month. A further 17.5 per cent only socialised once a month.

Sainsbury’s carried out the report with the National Centre for Social Re- search and Oxford Economics. It said the results prompted a scheme to offer its 178,000 employees the opportunity to spend a day volunteering.

Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s retail and operations director, said: “Our ambition is to help our customers to live well for less – it’s been at the heart of the company since we began 150 years ago. Sainsbury’s Living Well Index has found that over the last 12 months there has been a decline of the sense of community the nation feels as a whole, which has had a significant impact on our sense of wellbeing.” The volunteering scheme will “help bring back a sense of community for our customers and colleagues”, he added.

The index scores of working baby boomers fell by 1.76 points in the last 12 months, more than four times the average. The study’s authors said the “key driver” was a decline in social connections (down 0.36 points) and relationships (0.29 points).

The overall score for June 2019 was almost a full point lower than in autumn 2017, when the first index was published. Previous research has also highlighted a decrease in human interaction, with suggestions social media has contributed to the decline.

In 2010, a survey by online casino Yazino found one in four people spent more time socialising online, using sites such as Facebook, than they did in person.

It found that even when there was time to see people face to face, for example at weekends, up to 11 per cent of all adults still chose to stay indoors and communicate online instead.