Posted: August 4, 2020
Submitted by: https://www.womens-health.com
COVID-19 Loneliness Survey
Women’s Health Interactive recently conducted an exclusive and anonymous survey of 1,043 people exploring to what extent being isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic had on feelings of loneliness.
We measured loneliness before and during social distancing/shelter-in-place orders and broke that data down by gender, generation, and living arrangements. We additionally gathered data on how remote contact alleviated (or didn’t alleviate) loneliness by generation, along with the hardest parts of living in quarantine and the most-missed activities.
Beyond finding that loneliness nearly tripled across the board, we discovered that loneliness was notably higher in women than in men. Millennials were the loneliest generation overall but Baby Boomers and Generation X saw the biggest increases in loneliness during the pandemic.
In terms of remote contact (the use of Zoom, FaceTime, etc.) and its effect on loneliness, connecting through virtual means surprisingly helped Baby Boomers the most, with 47% saying that it helped to alleviate their feelings of loneliness (only 10.8% said it made their loneliness worse).
This stood in stark contrast to Millennials, 21.1% of whom said remote contact made their loneliness worse (42.5% said it helped to alleviate loneliness during the pandemic).
For Generation X respondents, 37.8% said remote contact helped their loneliness, while 14.9% said it made their loneliness worse.
Key findings from the survey include:
• Loneliness nearly tripled (+181%)
• Women’s loneliness was higher and increased more than men (+228%)
• Millennials were the loneliest generation overall, Boomers the least; But, Boomers/Gen X saw the biggest increase in loneliness
• Loneliness increased the most for those who live with children (+229%); those who live alone remained the loneliest overall
We’ve presented our findings in visual form here and shared anonymous quotes from survey respondents throughout. A more thoroughly detailed breakdown of these statistics can be found on our website, along with the survey methodology.
Original Post: COVID-19 Loneliness Survey
