Why being alone isn’t the same as being lonely

By Nancy Kong and Jack Lam

Loneliness isn’t just awful for individuals – it has society-wide impacts too. It significantly contributes to mental health issues, sleep disorders, cardiovascular disease, and early death. Researchers have even compared its impact on health to that of smoking.

Loneliness is everywhere, yet we understand so little about why some people feel it more keenly than others.

We looked at survey data that tracked more than 17,000 individuals over five years in Australia.