It is an invisible reality traditionally associated with older people, but which is already affecting the younger population. Actually, three out of ten young people Andalusians between 18 and 34 years old suffer from unwanted loneliness according to a study carried out by foundations ONCE and Axa presented this Thursday in Seville.
The study confirms that this feeling of involuntary isolation is increasing among the young and It decreases as the years progress. THE social networks and new technologies could be at the origin of these worrying data, even if barometers like this one will make it possible to determine the causes more precisely.
Thus, 30.2% of Andalusians between 18 and 34 years old feel unwanted loneliness, the 21% of 35 to 54 year olds and 19% of those aged 55 and over.
This study also reveals that the 22.6% of the adult population living in Andalusia feels alone and 16.3% suffers from chronic loneliness. This is data slightly higher than the national average, which stands at 20% and 13.5% respectively.
According to the document, there is chronic or long-term loneliness in Andalusia, which also lasts longer than in the rest of Spain; this involuntary isolation affects women more than men; and that, as in the rest of the country, young people suffer more than older people.
The study was announced this Thursday during an event organized at the pavilion of ONCE Foundation in Seville, in the presence of the general director of the Council for the Elderly, Active Participation and Undesirable Loneliness, Rocío Barragán; the ONCE delegate in Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla, Cristóbal Martínez; and the CEO of the AXA Foundation, Josep Alfonso.
As its promoters explain, the objective of the work is “to identify the prevalence of unwanted loneliness in Andalusia, to investigate possible causes or correlations; and know the opinion of the Andalusian population on the phenomenon of involuntary isolation”, comparing to what extent the prevalence and perception of loneliness differ.
To achieve this objective, a total of 2,900 telephone interviews to residents in Spain aged over 18, including 400 lived in Andalusia, with questions about their profile – sex, age, level of education, employment situation, habitat, state of health, disability or other problems – to compare the results of people who feel alone with those who do not express this sentiment and results at the national level.
With all the data obtained, at the national level, the “Barometer of Undesirable Loneliness in Spain 2024” concluded that involuntary isolation is currently “a persistent problem”, since two out of three people (67.7%) who admit to being in this situation have been living with it for more than two years and 59% for more than three years.
This means that in Spain, chronic loneliness (people who have suffered from loneliness for two years or more) amounts to 13.5% of the population. In the case of Andalusia, the number of people who report suffering from unwanted loneliness is 22.6%, 2.6 points more than the national average, and the duration of this isolation is longer than in the country as a whole. Thus, 72.3% of Andalusians who feel alone without wanting to have been in this situation for more than two years, a figure higher than the national average (67.7%) and 67.1% for more than three years, compared to 59% of Spain as a whole.
On the other hand, the study, carried out by the Fresno consulting firm, the good link, highlighted that “the difference in the feeling of loneliness” between women and men It is 10.2 percentage points in this territory, which means that it is higher than in the country as a whole, where their involuntary isolation is 3.8 points higher than theirs. Concretely, in Andalusia, people say they suffer from unwanted solitude. 27.6% women compared to 17.4% men, while in the rest of the state, 21.8% of female citizens and 18% of male citizens live in this situation.
The data also indicates that in Andalusia, economic inequality Its impact is greater than in the country as a whole. Thus, in relation to activity, the difference in prevalence of loneliness between employed and non-working people is greater in this community than in Spain as a whole (24.4 percentage points difference, compared to 20.1, respectively).
Along the same lines, the difference in prevalence of loneliness between people who they reach the end of the month easily and those who arrive there with difficulty It is a little higher in Andalusia than in Spain as a whole (18.9 points compared to 16.8). Thus, the prevalence of unwanted loneliness among citizens having difficulty making ends meet is 32.5% (30.1% nationally).
Loneliness and disability
Regarding the binary of loneliness and disability, the report shows that in Andalusia the prevalence of involuntary isolation among people with disabilities exceeds the national average by ten points (60.5% versus 50.6%).
Thus, Andalusians have a slightly less marked perception than Spaniards as a whole of the effects of poor health in isolation. And if this health is mentalthe number of citizens also affected by loneliness is similar in this region and in the rest of the state.
In this way, the loneliness gap between those who have and those who have not foreign origin is lower in Andalusia (6.5 percentage points) than in the country as a whole (14.7 points). Another aspect analyzed by the study is that of solitude, habitat and home. At this point, he concludes that in Andalusia, involuntary isolation is higher in small towns (between 20,000 and 100,000 inhabitants) and in single-person households.
Finally, the report focuses on the analysis of the social perception of unwanted loneliness and affirms that in Andalusia, as in the rest of the state, there is a widespread perception (95.9%) that Involuntary isolation is an increasingly important social problem, vision similar to the national average (95.1%).
In this regard, the work adds that two out of three Andalusians (67.7%) know other people who may feel lonely unintentionally, a result slightly lower than the national average (68.2%).
But despite all this, the vast majority of Andalusian society (91.6%) considers loneliness to be an invisible problem, an opinion somewhat higher in the country as a whole (93.3%). And to put an end to this invisibility, 87.9% of Andalusians questioned, like the rest of Spaniards (90.1%), consider that the fight against unwanted solitude must be a priority issue for public administrations.
