The pandemic normalized remote work, online grocery delivery and Peloton workouts. Americans’ growing home-based to-do lists make the U.S. a country with one of the most productive workforces in the world—but at what cost?
In recent years we’ve lost many of the touchpoints of social interaction—whether in the workplace, grocery store or gym—that make us uniquely human. Isolation has long been a problem for older American retirees, widowed people or those struggling with health problems that force them to be homebound. A growing body of research, however, shows that for many Americans, loneliness is creeping into the middle-age years.
It’s this age group that makes up the majority of the workforce while its members simultaneously shoulders the burdens brought by younger and older generations of their families. As a result, write the authors of a new study published in American Psychologist, Americans report higher levels of loneliness compared with most Europeans, and those numbers have gotten markedly worse compared with those of previous generations surveyed.
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Between 2002 and 2020, researchers asked upward of 59,000 participants who were between the ages of 45 and 65 to fill out a three-question survey that asked about general attitudes related to companionship, social exclusion and social isolation. They were not asked directly if they felt lonely or how lonely they felt. This approach is considered the gold standard in loneliness research because indirectly asking participants questions about loneliness is more likely to illicit an honest and accurate response than asking them directly. Many people might be embarrassed to admit to being lonely or not realize that what they’re feeling is, indeed, just that.
Americans and their British counterparts scored higher on loneliness scales compared with people in 13 European nations. By contrast, middle-aged adults in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands reported some of the lowest levels of loneliness. American baby boomers (defined as those who were born between 1946 and 1964), the youngest of whom are still in middle age, and people in Generation X (which comprises those born in 1965–1980) had higher levels of loneliness than then middle-aged adults of the Silent Generation (which comprises those born in 1928–1945). The individuals who participated in the survey were born between 1937 and 1974, and they are now around age 50 to 87.
It is unclear exactly what’s behind these increases, but Frank J. Infurna, lead study author and an associate professor in the department of psychology at Arizona State University, points to some clues. “A lack of a social safety net in the U.S. as well as cultural norms seem to be driving increases in loneliness versus other European nations,” he says. Parental leave is one example. In Denmark, since August 2022, mothers have been entitled to four weeks leave during pregnancy, and each parent is entitled to an additional 24 weeks after their baby is born, or 52 weeks in all. Conversely, in the U.S., only 27 percent of workers had access to any paid family leave as of March 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to one survey, roughly half of those who left the U.S. workforce in 2021 said that childcare issues contributed to their decision to quit a job. Parents who have the flexibility to reach out to others in early parenthood during their leave period while also retaining their job are much more likely to end up with a robust network of social connections, Infurna says.
Paid vacation is another workplace benefit that may play a role in loneliness by providing people with the time off necessary to strengthen familial bonds and friendships through time spent outside of work. In the Netherlands, another nation where the prevalence of loneliness is much lower than it is in the U.S., full-time employees are entitled to a minimum of 20 days of paid leave per year. The U.S. now stands alone as the only developed nation in the world with no federal law providing for paid leave.
Daniel Surkalim, a loneliness researcher at the World Health Organization, published similar data in 2022 that found that the lowest levels of loneliness were observed in Nordic nations, such as Finland, Sweden and Denmark. “We consistently see that there’s a correlation between government investment in its people and lower rates of loneliness,” Surkalim says. People are more likely to feel connected to one other and to the society in which they live. Additionally, he says that cultural norms may also contribute. In the U.S., those with the highest education tend to move the farthest away from family and friends, usually for employment. A May 2022 Pew Research Centersurvey found that about a third of adults with a postgraduate degree did not live near any extended family. Once these connections are severed in early adulthood, it can be difficult to reestablish them while in the rat race of high-stress employment.
While loneliness and its negative health consequences have been studied extensively in older Americans, there’s been less research into loneliness in middle age, which usually is considered to span from age 40 to age 60 or thereabouts. According to a recent surgeon general’s report, a lack of social connection increased the risk of premature death by more than 60 percent and also increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and dementia. Loneliness may also contribute to the declining U.S. life expectancy, which, as of this year, sits at 77.5 years. According to an August 2023 BMJ Open study, “deaths of despair,”—which include alcoholism, drug overdose and suicide and are often tied to isolation—are “stagnating life expectancy” in the U.S., even as the populations of countries with similar levels of economic development see the lifespans of their citizens extending into the mid- to late 80s.
Poor health outcomes are also tied to the effects of stress, which causes a heightened inflammatory response. A study published in the July 2018 edition of the journal Social Science & Medicine found a “significant relationship between loneliness and ... three systemic inflammation biomarkers.” These biomarkers may be early warning signs of poor health outcomes, specifically cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes and diabetes. “Loneliness is a mismatch between the relationships people wish to have and those that they do have, and this study shows that the feeling of loneliness is associated with biomarkers of stress on the body,” says lead study author Paula V. Nersesian, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Southern Maine, whose research is focused on disease prevention.
Loneliness in middle age also leads to insomnia in an age group that’s already experiencing sleep disturbances caused by aging, according to a July 2023 study published the journal Psychiatry Research. This lack of sleep impacts physical and mental well-being. “If you’re lonely, you’re less likely to feel secure in your environment, and it’s this sense of vulnerability that will impact your sleep,” says Bei Wu, a co-author of the study and a professor of global health at New York University.
The U.S. surgeon general recently underscored the importance of loneliness as a growing public health concern. National awareness of the issue can lead to concrete steps that individuals can adopt. There are basic steps that you can take to deal with loneliness, such as reaching out to friends that you’ve left behind, doing volunteer work, taking up that hobby that you’ve been putting off, reading books or exercising in group settings. “We need to understand that this is a big issue that’s only going to get worse if we don’t address it,” Wu says.
Middle age is a time when many people go through a variety of life changes—parenting, moving up to supervisory roles at work or caring for aging parents. “It’s an age of opportunity but also of increasing demands, which can become overwhelming,” Nersesian says. People who are in middle age, then, should always be aware that letting go of the ties that bind when confronting the inevitable stresses of midlife can pave the way to an array of chronic mental and physical ailments.