Evidence base
Gallup
Over 1 in 5 People Worldwide Feel Lonely a Lot
What it found
Gallup's global survey finds that more than one in five adults worldwide report feeling lonely a lot of the previous day. The 2024 data confirm a pattern already documented elsewhere: younger adults report elevated loneliness relative to older age groups.
Why it matters for practice
The scale and consistency of this finding across a global sample makes age-targeted assumptions about loneliness (that it is primarily an older-adult problem) harder to sustain. Programme designers should read this alongside local prevalence data before assuming their population matches the global pattern.