"And of course we are a relatively large country, and sometimes we find ourselves living far away from loved ones," Dr Woodward adds. The Australian Loneliness Report in 2018 found an even higher percentage of respondents - 17 per cent - were living alone.ĭr Lim says this increase in people living alone and a fall in our marriage rate have both contributed to an increase in social isolation. Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.Over the last couple of decades, the proportion of the population aged 15 years and over living alone has increased from 9 per cent to 12 per cent, ABS data reveals. Figures shows one quarter of private dwellings in Australia have only one person living in them. How we workįor one thing, many more of us are living alone. Others experience loneliness because the relationships we do have don't meet our needs, or leave us feeling unsupported and disconnected. Did something lead you there, and what (if anything) helped you reconnect? Email Australians are lonely because they're socially isolated - disconnected from social support because of geography, a mobility issue or a life circumstance (although it's possible to be socially isolated and not lonely). Looking at some of those sort of areas makes us understand with more depth and texture what loneliness is really about." We'd be honoured to hear about your experience with loneliness. "It's the under-65 people who've lost their partner. "We've got to get out of that stereotype that it's only elderly people that are lonely," says Elisabeth Shaw, CEO of Relationships Australia NSW.
Many of us - including young people who appear popular and connected - lack strong meaningful relationships to enrich our lives and protect our physical and mental health, and wellbeing. What's driving our loneliness?Ĭhronic loneliness is on the rise in Australia, says Dr Michelle Lim from Swinburne University of Technology and the scientific chair of the Australian Coalition to End Loneliness. We're starting with television host Osher Gunsberg's account of living with complex mental illness. This is why ABC Everyday will be focusing on the issue of social isolation and loneliness: Who's lonely in Australia what we can do to start reconnecting and what social isolation looks like in practice. The issue is so pervasive, and its effects are so damaging, that experts warn of a "loneliness epidemic" that could be our next public health crisis.
So when one in four Australians reports feeling lonely at least one day a week, it's something we need to pay attention to. Times have changed, but not being connected to others can still take a tremendous toll on our relationships, health, wellbeing, and our survival. Our need to connect with others is deeply hardwired (and goes right back to when we'd hang out in groups so we could survive).