What it found
Cigna's 2020 U.S. survey found 61% of adults report feeling lonely sometimes or always, a 7-point rise year over year, with loneliness concentrated among younger workers: 73% of 18-22 year-olds and over 80% of employed Gen Z respondents. Lonely workers reported missing work twice as often due to illness and five times as often due to stress.
Why it matters for practice
This is self-reported survey data collected pre-pandemic, so it should be read as a baseline rather than a current figure; the absence rates are the part most useful to employers building a case for intervention, since they tie loneliness directly to measurable workplace cost. It does not establish causation, only association, so treat the illness/stress absence multipliers as a planning signal rather than a guarantee of return on any specific programme.