Counting the Lonely

One in six. The World Health Organization counts that share of people worldwide as affected by loneliness. The figure comes from the global report that its Commission on Social Connection released on 30 June 2025. Gallup's figures run higher. A Meta-Gallup survey covered 142 countries and was fielded from June 2022 to February 2023. It found nearly one in four people, more than a billion, feeling very or fairly lonely. China was not surveyed, so the true figure could be higher.

Loneliness now has a place in global health policy. In May 2025 the World Health Assembly adopted its first-ever resolution on social connection. With that much attention on the numbers, they are worth reading side by side.

Start with the questions, because they are not the same question. Gallup's 2023 World Poll asked about the previous day. It found that over one in five people worldwide, 23 percent, felt loneliness a lot of that day. A 2026 study in the European Journal of Epidemiology drew on the 2023–2024 Gallup World Poll: 148 countries and 218,048 respondents. It also found over one in five adults reporting loneliness. The Meta-Gallup survey asked who felt very or fairly lonely. The WHO counts people affected. Gallup adds its own caution: reported loneliness is consistently higher in web surveys than in traditional interviews. Four counts, four questions. They are not one number measured four times.

On the cost, the sources line up. The WHO links loneliness to an estimated 100 deaths every hour, more than 871,000 a year. It says people who are lonely are twice as likely to get depressed. Gallup found that people who felt lonely were 36 percentage points more likely to report sadness than people who did not. The WHO also names a cost that shows up later: teenagers who felt lonely were 22 percent more likely to get lower grades or qualifications.

On age, they split. The WHO Commission reports that between 17 and 21 percent of people aged 13 to 29 felt lonely, with the highest rates among teenagers. The Meta-Gallup survey puts young adults aged 19 to 29 at the top, at 27 percent. Adults 65 and older sit at the bottom, at 17 percent. Gallup's 2023 World Poll found a messier picture. In many countries, people 50 and older were at least 10 points more likely than the youngest adults to report loneliness. In several others, including the United States, the pattern ran the other way. The WHO report also gives a separate estimate for social isolation, built on more limited data. It reaches up to one in three older adults and one in four adolescents.

On gender, the global picture is flat. In the Meta-Gallup survey, 24 percent of men and 24 percent of women reported feeling very or fairly lonely. Partnership and money show wider gaps. Gallup found that 28 percent of unmarried people felt lonely, against 19 percent of those married or in a domestic partnership. Gallup also compared people by their finances. Those at the lower end of its financial measure were about twice as likely as those it describes as better off financially to say they felt lonely a lot of the previous day.

The WHO names some groups that may face discrimination or additional barriers that make social connection harder. They include refugees or migrants, LGBTQ+ people, and indigenous groups and ethnic minorities. Its list of causes runs wider still: poor health, low income and education, living alone, inadequate community infrastructure and public policies, and digital technologies.

Geography is where careful reading matters most. The WHO reports that about 24 percent of people in low-income countries feel lonely. That is twice the rate in high-income countries, about 11 percent. Gallup's 2023 national rates ran from 45 percent in Comoros to 6 percent in Vietnam. Loneliness passed 30 percent in 22 countries, more than half of them in Africa. Gallup attaches a caveat to those high rates: people answering in those countries 'may be affirming they spent periods of their day physically, rather than emotionally, alone.' The 2026 epidemiology study found prevalence highest in low-income countries and Sub-Saharan Africa. It also reported that, despite lower prevalence, loneliness 'appeared more psychologically burdensome' in high-income, more developed regions. That is one study's reading of one survey. It sits next to Gallup's caveat rather than settling it.

Work carries its own load. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 is built on 2025 data. Half of all employees in the United States and Canada reported significant daily stress, the highest rate in the world, and loneliness among employees there rose to 19 percent. In sub-Saharan Africa, 28 percent of employees reported daily loneliness, among the highest worldwide. In East Asia, loneliness rose sharply to 23 percent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, it fell to 12 percent.

Then the screen. The WHO counts digital technologies among the causes of loneliness and isolation. Its report calls for vigilance about excessive screen time and negative online interactions for young people's mental health. A meta-analysis of 59 studies, with 81,344 participants, put numbers on that worry and complicated it.

Time spent on social media showed a smaller but significant correlation with loneliness: r = 0.07. Problematic social media use showed a moderate and consistent association: r = 0.29. Active and passive use showed no significant difference in their link to loneliness. Results varied substantially from study to study. The authors describe the overall influence as 'ambivalent.' Some research finds that social media worsens loneliness, and other research finds that it eases isolation.

Read those two numbers together, and the hours start to look like the wrong thing to count. The stronger link is with the pattern the researchers call problematic, not with the clock. Both are correlations, and a correlation does not say which came first.

What helps, by the WHO's account, includes strengthening social infrastructure, such as parks, libraries and cafés, and providing psychological interventions. It also lists everyday steps: reaching out to a friend in need, putting the phone away to be fully present in a conversation, greeting a neighbor, joining a local group, volunteering. They are options, not cures, and they will not reach everyone. A report that counts low income, poor health and inadequate public policy among the causes begins its answers with shared places, not with one person.

“They are not one number measured four times.”

1. WHO: Social connection linked to improved health and reduced risk of early death
2. Gallup: Almost a Quarter of the World Feels Lonely
3. Gallup: Over 1 in 5 People Worldwide Feel Lonely a Lot
4. Loneliness around the world (European Journal of Epidemiology)
5. Social media use and loneliness in adolescents and young adults: meta-analysis
6. Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2026: regional data