In a Lonely Place: Investigating Regional Differences in Loneliness

Abstract

Loneliness has traditionally been studied on the individual level. This study is one of the first to systematically describe and explain differences in loneliness on a fine-grained regional level. Using data from the nationally representative German Socio-Economic Panel Study ( N = 17,602), we mapped the regional distribution of loneliness across Germany and examined whether regional differences in loneliness can be explained by both individual and regional characteristics. Perceived neighborhood relation, perceived distance to public parks and sport/leisure facilities as well as objective regional remoteness and population change were positively related to loneliness. Individual-level characteristics, however, appeared to be more important in explaining variance in loneliness. In sum, loneliness varies across geographical regions, and these differences can partly be linked to characteristics of these regions. Our results may aid governments and public health care services to identify geographical areas most at risk of loneliness and the resulting physical and mental health issues.

Loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review enriched with empirical evidence from a large-scale diary study

“…Across studies, the risk and protective factors that are known from before the pandemic remained risk or protective factors during the pandemic. For example, and similar to well-established findings (e.g., Algren et al, 2020;Buecker, Ebert, et al, 2020;Luo et al, 2012;Pinquart & Sörensen, 2000), socio-economic status was negatively associated with loneliness, and health was positively associated with loneli-ness (Bu et al, 2020a;Pan et al, 2020). Most correlates of loneliness reported in the included articles could be subsumed under "mental health variables", including stress, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, drug use, and general worries.…”

Feeling Connected after Experiencing Digital Nature: A Survey Study

“…Interestingly, a correlation has been found between perceived social support and the amount of green space in the living area [ 13 ]: Respondents who lived near (urban) green spaces experienced less feelings of loneliness, suggesting that the mere presence of nature can already have an effect on social wellbeing. Likewise, a positive relation has been found between loneliness and perceived distance to public parks and recreational areas [ 23 ]: People who experience nature as being closer at hand experience less feelings of loneliness compared to people who experience nature as more distant. Additionally, several studies show that nearby nature is positively correlated with feelings of connectedness and, in line with aforementioned study, reduces feelings of loneliness, while there was no such correlation with number of nature visits [ 24 , 25 ].…”

Is Loneliness in Emerging Adults Increasing Over Time? A Preregistered Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

“…Moreover, loneliness is related to characteristics at the regional level, such as the degree of urbanization (MacDonald et al, 2020;Yan et al, 2014), population change (Buecker, Ebert, et al, 2020), and social inequality (Yan et al, 2014), which have changed worldwide over historical time, but at different rates depending on the country. All these historical changes may contribute to a better understanding of changes in emerging adults' loneliness over historical time.…”

“…The database is freely available and especially suited for our purposes as it contains nearly complete data on the environmental conditions of interest over the historical period examined in this meta-analysis. We used the regional-level population growth, degree of urbanization, and income inequality as spatiotemporal moderators in our analysis because these variables have been found to explain variance in loneliness in previous research (Buecker, Ebert, et al, 2020;MacDonald et al, 2020;Yan et al, 2014). Population growth was measured in annual percent, the degree of urbanization per nation was operationalized by the percent of the urban population of the total population, and the income inequality was indexed by the Gini coefficient.…”