Pandemic of loneliness

One in 14 feel more isolated – especially city dwellers and students

BRITAIN’S once jampacked cities have been filled with lonely and anxious residents since the pandemic struck, research has found.

In contrast, middle-class suburbs and places in rural areas have been more sheltered from the psychological damage that a year of severe curbs on normal life has brought.

The breakdown, from the Office for National Statistics, is the first to identify where the greatest impact of lockdowns on mental health have been felt.

Wellbeing surveys suggest that, during last summer and autumn, the number of people who said they were often or always lonely rose by more than a million and isolation now affects the lives of one in 14 of the population.

Loneliness was found to be concentrated in inner London and major cities and in towns and cities with universities, highly-developed service industries and old industrial areas. Around 8 per cent of people living in these places said they were lonely.

But in market towns, wealthier suburbs and the countryside, 6 per cent or fewer counted themselves as lonely. Areas with a higher percentage of younger people aged 16 to 24 and places with higher unemployment rates had greater rates of loneliness.

‘People in urban areas may have been more prone to loneliness than those in rural areas,’ the report said. ‘During the pandemic, anxiety has become more linked to population density. This may be because of concerns around social distancing and the perceived risk of infection.’

Single people were more at risk of loneliness, researchers said, adding that married couples were protected because they always had someone to talk to. Low levels of satisfaction with life and mental health among the country’s two million students were also found to have risen slightly in March.

Students remain uncertain when they will be able to return to campuses and colleges, with no route out of lockdown laid out yet.