Loneliness, a growing problem worldwide

Amid growing research pointing to widespread health impacts associated with loneliness, a new global survey shows that around a quarter of all people feel lonely. — dpa

Almost a quarter of the world’s people feel lonely, according to United States-based analytics and advisory company Gallup, whose pollsters warned of “serious physical and mental effects” as a result.

In Gallup’s first global survey on this subject, 23% of participants said they felt lonely “a lot of the day yesterday”, and were, in turn, 36 percentage points more likely to “experience sadness” than others, and 20 points more likely to feel angry.