Part 1: A growing sense of disconnection

Research. More than half — 54 per cent — of people who said they felt alone more often than they like also reported being in fair or poor health, compared with 27 per cent of people who do not feel alone.

People who reported feeling alone are most likely to be between the ages of 25 and 34, single, living alone in an apartment and experiencing financial strain, according to the Sentis analysis.

They are also more likely to have negative views of their neighbourhoods and communities in general, DiPaula said, noting that the results reveal a distinct hardening of attitudes toward others among those who report feeling most isolated. They were more likely to agree that those who live here but don’t speak English don’t try hard enough to be part of the community, that there is too much foreign ownership of real estate, and that Vancouver is becoming a resort town for the wealthy.

The results show that feeling alone is more than just an individual problem, but one that has ripple effects throughout neighbourhoods and communities, said the Vancouver Foundation’s Clement.

“It doesn’t just affect their immediate feeling of, ‘ I’m alone.’ It starts to infect how they feel about the larger community that they’re a part of,” she said. “We ignore those feelings at our detriment.”

Coquitlam resident Cowin said that while it is necessary to have relationships with others based on shared interests and values, it may not be enough.

“I’m increasingly thinking that these relationships need to be complemented with people who we encounter regularly on an ad hoc basis and with whom we share a robust network of mutual acquaintances,” he said.

“I’ve lost some of that ‘ village’ over the past decade.”