Reframing Loneliness as a Public Health Issue
A recent report from the WHO Commission on Social Connection, From loneliness to social connection: charting a path to healthier societies, has spotlighted a major but often overlooked global threat: social isolation and loneliness. The report notes that "loneliness affects nearly one in six people globally (2014–2023) and causes about 871 000 deaths annually (2014–2019)". Affecting people of all ages, the toll on both mental and physical health is profound—from heightened heart disease risk to worsening anxiety, depression, and even early mortality.
The report contains three main messages:
- Social disconnection is widespread, found in all regions and across all age groups.
- Its 'consequences are both severe and underrecognised, impacting mortality, physical and mental health, well-being, education, the economy and wider society. Its widespread occurrence and its severe consequences make it a serious global public health issue'.
- However, there is hope. There are effective strategies in existence and these should be 'scaled up'.
Key concepts
Perhaps defining loneliness is the hardest part of the process. It is different to being alone and also different to social isolation. The report notes that there is growing consensus about what is meant by these terms which allows for increasing recognition and improvements in targeting responses. WHO define social connection as 'how people relate to and interact with others', social isolation as 'a form of social disconnection, is the objective state of having few roles, relationships and social interactions with others' and loneliness as a 'negative, subjective emotional state resulting from a discrepancy between one’s desired and actual experience of connection. Interestingly they acknowledge that these concepts differ across cultures and along the life course.
The Cost of Disconnection
Beyond individual suffering, loneliness carries societal impacts too. More frequent doctor visits and hospitalisations impact the health system, reduced workplace productivity and increased absenteeism impacts the economy and weakened resilience lowers our individual and societal ability to respond to crises, educational setbacks, and economic downturns.
Six Pillars of Social Healing
The Commission proposes a multifaceted, scalable framework based on interdisciplinary research:
National strategies – Integration of social health targets into public policy.
Urban design – Creating inclusive, accessible community spaces.
Education reform – Embedding social-emotional learning from early schooling.
Workplace transformation – Promoting social bonds and compassion in organisations.
Healthcare innovation – Recognising and addressing social isolation in clinical settings.
Digital communities – Leveraging technology to enhance, not replace, real-world connection
The Commission urges Governments and funders to invest in social infrastructure and data systems, researchers to standardise measures of social health and evaluate intervention and all sectors—private, public, non-profit—to treat social connection as fundamental to well-being.
Vision for a More Connected World
The report envisions societies where '“Stronger social bonds improve well-being, reduce preventable deaths, boost education and economic resilience, and ease the social and financial burden of disconnection.” It calls this a turning point—to place “social health” on equal footing with physical and mental health systems. “From Loneliness to Social Connection” is a watershed moment in public health—transforming how we view and address social isolation. Its evidence-based roadmap empowers policymakers, communities, businesses, and healthcare to collaboratively weave the fabric of connection back into society.
Loneliness in Ireland
The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 committed to ‘developing the necessary actions to tackle loneliness and isolation, particularly among older people’. Data from Healthy Ireland Survey 2023 finds that across all ages and sexes, 3.9 per cent of the population report often or always feeling lonely, 9.9 per cent report feeling lonely some of the time and 12.1 per cent report feeling lonely occasionally. The current and growing body of evidence points to the detrimental effect of loneliness on health as well links to lower interpersonal trust, leading to lower societal cohesion. Eight countries have adopted policies on this topic, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales) and the United States of America. Most of the policies specifically address loneliness. Social Justice Ireland recommends an allocation of €4m to resource a National Action Plan.