Loneliness in Ireland: how common it is and what actually helps

In 2024, 14.5% of people in Ireland aged 16 and over said they had felt lonely at least some of the time in the previous four weeks, according to the CSO’s Survey on Income and Living Conditions (CSO). That is down from 22.5% in 2021, when Covid restrictions were in place (CSO). Most people said they had not felt lonely at all.

So loneliness is common enough that you almost certainly know someone living with it, and it is not a character flaw. It is also a measurable health risk, and the research on what reduces it is more specific than “get out more”.

How many people in Ireland feel lonely, and who feels it most?

The CSO asks a simple question: how often did you feel lonely in the four weeks before the interview? The headline figure counts anyone who answered “some of the time” or more often, so it captures ordinary, passing loneliness as well as the persistent kind.

Women are more affected than men. In 2024, 17.1% of women reported feeling lonely at least some of the time, compared with 11.7% of men (CSO). Put the other way, 70.9% of men and 63.4% of women said they had not felt lonely at all in that period (CSO).

The biggest gap is by health. Three in ten (30.9%) people who were unable to work because of long-standing health problems reported feeling lonely, against 12.5% of employed people and 13.5% of retired people (CSO). This is a snapshot survey, so it cannot tell us whether illness leads to loneliness, loneliness worsens health, or both.

By age, the youngest and oldest groups moved in the wrong direction in the latest year. Loneliness among 16 to 24 year olds increased from 12.4% in 2023 to 15.6% in 2024, and among people aged 65 and over from 13.1% to 15.4% (CSO). These are single-year shifts in a sample survey, so treat them as a flag rather than a trend. The World Health Organization’s global figures point the same way for young people: 17 to 21% of 13 to 29 year olds reported feeling lonely (WHO).

For older people specifically, the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), which follows adults aged 50 and over, gives a more reassuring picture than the stereotype. In its pre-pandemic data (the TILDA news item does not name the wave), over 70% of participants said they never or rarely felt lonely, less than 25% felt lonely some of the time and just 5% felt lonely often (TILDA). Living arrangements made a big difference: among those living alone, 37% were often lonely, compared with 21% of those living with others (TILDA). Loneliness scores in TILDA more than doubled during the pandemic, but had returned to pre-pandemic levels by Wave 6 of the study (Trinity College Dublin).

Is being lonely the same as being alone?

No, and the distinction matters for what you do about it. The WHO defines loneliness as “a subjective, distressing feeling that arises when there is a gap between the social connections one has and those one wants or needs” (WHO). Social isolation is different: “the objective state of having too few roles, relationships, and interactions with others” (WHO). One is a feeling, the other is a headcount.

The HSE makes the same point in plainer words: loneliness can happen even when you are surrounded by people (HSE). A parent of small children, someone in a full house or a busy office can be lonely. Someone who lives alone and likes it may not be.

Both states carry a health cost, though. The best-known meta-analysis on mortality found no difference between objective isolation and the subjective feeling of loneliness in how strongly they predicted early death (PubMed). So the feeling is not “just in your head” in any dismissive sense.

What does loneliness do to your body and mind?

The evidence here comes from large pooled analyses of studies that follow people over years. They show association after adjusting for other factors, not proof that loneliness causes illness, but the pattern is consistent.

• Earlier death. A meta-analysis of studies published between 1980 and 2014 found social isolation, loneliness and living alone were linked to a 29%, 26% and 32% higher likelihood of dying over follow-up, respectively, an influence the authors called “comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality” (PubMed). A newer and larger pooling of 90 cohort studies covering 2,205,199 people found a smaller effect for loneliness, a 14% higher risk of all-cause mortality, and 32% for social isolation (PubMed). The size varies by study; the direction does not.
• Heart disease and stroke. A systematic review drew on 16 longitudinal datasets, with 4628 coronary heart disease and 3002 stroke events over 3 to 21 years, though only 11 studies for heart disease and 8 for stroke had data that could be pooled (PubMed). Poor social relationships, a measure that mixes loneliness and isolation, were linked to a 29% higher risk of coronary heart disease and a 32% higher risk of stroke (PubMed). Both confidence intervals had a lower bound of 1.04, close to no effect, so the heart link is real but weaker and less certain than the mortality link (PubMed).
• Depression. A meta-analysis of eight cohorts found adults who were often lonely had 2.33 times the odds of developing new depression compared with people who were not often lonely, though the authors say to interpret this with caution because the studies varied a lot (PubMed).

At the global level, the WHO estimates loneliness is linked to 100 deaths every hour, more than 871 000 deaths annually (WHO). That is a modelled estimate built from the kind of risk figures above, not counted deaths, so read it as “linked to” rather than “caused”.

What does the research say actually reduces loneliness?

This is the part most advice skips. Loneliness programmes fall into four broad strategies: improving social skills, enhancing social support, increasing opportunities for social contact, and addressing maladaptive social cognition (PubMed). “Maladaptive social cognition” means the unhelpful habits of thought that loneliness breeds: assuming others will reject you, reading a slow reply as a snub, expecting a gathering to go badly before you arrive. When the meta-analysis restricted itself to properly randomised trials, the interventions that worked best were the ones tackling these thought patterns, not the ones that simply created more chances to meet people (PubMed). That was based on a small number of older trials, and later reviews have not re-run the same head-to-head comparison.

What newer work does confirm is that psychological programmes reduce loneliness, and that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the most studied of them. A systematic review looked at 31 randomised trials involving 3959 people; the 28 trials with 3039 people that could be pooled showed a small to medium reduction in loneliness (PubMed). The programmes were “mostly face to face, group-based and delivered weekly”, with CBT the most common type (PubMed). A separate review of 22 studies with 2,567 participants found CBT moderately reduced loneliness and rated the evidence for it as medium strength, the same rating it gave several less common approaches, with very weak evidence for mindfulness or behavioural activation on their own (PubMed). Every one of those 22 trials was judged at some or high risk of bias (PubMed). A broad review of mindfulness programmes likewise lists loneliness among the outcomes where evidence is “inconclusive or only preliminary” (PubMed).

For older adults living at home, a network meta-analysis of 46 studies with 6049 participants found interventions worked best when they had psychosocial content, combined individual and group formats, and mixed face-to-face with online contact (PubMed). A review of CBT specifically for over-60s found a large effect, but it rested on only 8 trials with 720 participants, describes its own evidence as low quality, and calls the results “exploratory rather than definitive” (PubMed).

Two honest caveats. The trials are mixed in quality and vary widely in results, so nobody can yet say which programme suits which person. And none of this evidence is Irish; all of it is international. What it does show is that the approaches with the most support are structured help with how you think about social situations, and the kind of regular, shared, group activity the trials used. Willpower and a vague resolution to be more sociable are not what was tested.

What can you do this month if you feel lonely?

• Start by accepting it is normal. The HSE’s first piece of advice is to know your loneliness is normal, because most people have periods of it at different times in life (HSE). Shame keeps people from doing anything else on this list.
• Notice the stories you tell yourself. When a friend does not reply or a room feels cold, write down what you assumed and what else it could mean. This is the core of what the best-supported programmes teach.
• Pick one weekly, shared activity and keep going. Weekly, group-based sessions are what most of the effective trials used, so a walking group, a choir, a class or a club is the closest everyday equivalent. No trial has compared this against occasional nights out, so treat it as a sensible starting point rather than proven.
• Talk to your GP. The HSE says a GP “can help you explore what’s going on and connect you with suitable support” (HSE). Ask about social prescribing, a service that links you with local activities. If the thoughts are heavy, ask about CBT: it is the most studied talking approach for loneliness, with moderate support, though not proven better than the alternatives.
• Be wary of quitting social media as a cure. A review of social media interventions measured mental well-being broadly rather than loneliness specifically, and depression was the outcome that improved most. Therapy-based approaches improved well-being in most of their studies, while simply limiting or quitting social media did so in only a minority, but almost all the studies were rated weak quality and most used convenience samples of university students (PubMed).

How can you help a parent, partner or friend who seems lonely?

Ask them directly and gently. Because loneliness is a feeling, not a headcount, a parent who lives alone may be content and a partner in the same house as you may not be. Do not assume either way.

Regular beats grand. A fixed weekly call or visit gives them something to count on in a way an occasional big gesture does not. No trial has tested this, so it is practical advice rather than evidence. If they are hesitant about a group, offer to go with them to something that recurs, and go the second and third time too.

Avoid “you should get out more”. The evidence says the thought patterns underneath loneliness matter at least as much as the diary, and being told to try harder tends to confirm the story that something is wrong with them. If an older parent seems stuck, ALONE offers befriending, practical support and daily phone check-ins for older people (HSE), and the Irish Men’s Sheds Association provides “friendly, relaxed spaces to connect over shared activities” (HSE).

Where can you get support in Ireland?

If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, contact your GP, Samaritans or emergency services now.

• Your GP, who can refer you to counselling or to a social prescribing service.
• Social prescribing. A social prescribing service connects you with activities and supports in your area. You can contact a service directly or ask your GP to refer you, and you can find your local service at allirelandsocialprescribing.ie (HSE).
• Samaritans, free on 116 123, 24 hours a day, or by email at jo@samaritans.ie (HSE).
• Seniorline, a confidential listening service for older people run by trained older volunteers, on 1800 804 591, Monday to Sunday, 10am to 10pm (HSE).
• ALONE’s National Support and Referral Line for older people on 0818 222 024, seven days a week from 8am to 8pm (ALONE).
• Irish Men’s Sheds Association at menssheds.ie for shared, practical activity (HSE).

Services and hours can change, so check the linked pages before relying on them.

Related Compound guides

If the practical problem is meeting people rather than understanding loneliness, read How to make friends as an adult in Ireland.

For the wider evidence on relationships, exercise, meaning and life satisfaction, see How to be happier: what the evidence actually says.