The state of loneliness: ONS data on loneliness in Britain

Campaign to End Loneliness, 2023

The Campaign to End Loneliness worked with Dr Heather McClelland of the University of Glasgow to analyse ONS data on loneliness from their Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OLS) between March 2020 and January 2023.

The data shows the number of people who are chronically lonely has risen to 3.83 million – half a million more than in the first year of the pandemic when 3.24 million people were chronically lonely.