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Research · for Older people's & loneliness organisations

Living Alone in Later Life: Who, Where, and What It Means for Health

Published 2026-10-16

How many older people live alone depends heavily on where they live: across 153 countries with data, the share of people aged 65 and over living alone ranged from 37% in Estonia to 0.3% in Afghanistan[1]. Living alone is not the same as being lonely, but where living alone, isolation and loneliness come together, the research links them with poorer health and earlier death, and the evidence on what helps is still thinner than the need.

For many older people, a home of their own is a choice and a source of independence, kept up long after a partner has died or children have moved away. For others it follows widowhood, illness or the loss of nearby family, and the days can pass with little contact. Both experiences sit inside the same statistics. This study sets out what the data from around the world show about who lives alone in later life, how that differs between women and men and between countries, how it relates to loneliness and social isolation, what the research links it with, and what the evidence says services and governments can do.

21%of women aged 65 and over worldwide lived alone around 2010, against 10% of men, by UN estimates[1]
20–34%of older people in China, India, the United States and the regions of Europe and Latin America are lonely, according to studies cited by WHO[2]

About one in three older people live alone in northern and western Europe, and almost none do in parts of Asia and Africa

The most complete global picture comes from the United Nations Database on the Households and Living Arrangements of Older Persons, which brings together censuses and household surveys. For most countries its latest estimates refer to 2010 or later, and for the rest to 2000–2009, so it is a snapshot of the last decade or two rather than of today[1].

The highest shares of people aged 65 and over living alone were in Europe, Northern America, Australia and New Zealand. Older people were most likely to live alone in Finland and the United Kingdom (36% each), the Netherlands (35.4%), Switzerland (35.2%) and Norway (34.7%), with Estonia highest of all at 37%[1]. Europe itself was divided: about one in five older people lived alone in Greece, Portugal and Spain, against about one in three in Austria, Denmark, France, Sweden and the UK[1].

In Latin America the shares were lower: 14.6% in Brazil and 12.6% in Mexico. The lowest shares in the world were in parts of Asia and Africa, among them Pakistan (0.9%) and Afghanistan (0.3%)[1].

Share of people aged 65 and over living alone, selected countries, most recent estimatesPercentage of older persons living alone in selected countries from the UN Database on the Households and Living Arrangements of Older Persons 2019: Estonia 37%; Finland 36%; United Kingdom 36%; Netherlands 35.4%; Brazil 14.6%; Mexico 12.6%; Pakistan 0.9%; Afghanistan 0.3%.0%10%20%30%40%Estonia37%Finland36%United Kingdom36%Netherlands35.4%Brazil14.6%Mexico12.6%Pakistan0.9%Afghanistan0.3%
Census and survey estimates from different years; for most countries 2010 or later, for the rest 2000–2009, so countries are not measured at the same date. Source: UN DESA Population Division, Technical Paper 2020/03.

The meaning of living alone differs too. UN DESA notes that in richer countries most older people prefer to live independently while their health allows, and that living apart does not mean an absence of family support. In less developed countries, where adult children and other relatives carry most of the responsibility for supporting older family members, older people living alone “are often in vulnerable conditions: they often have higher rates of poverty, worse health outcomes” and a lower quality of life than those living with family[1]. A low share living alone can therefore hide a group with very little support around them.

Older women are about twice as likely as older men to live alone, though the gap is narrowing in some countries

Across the 141 countries with data by sex, older women were in most cases more likely than older men to live alone. Around 2010, 21% of women aged 65 and over worldwide lived alone, compared with 10% of men[1]. UN DESA links this to women’s longer lives, to men tending to marry younger women, and to men being more likely to remarry after divorce or widowhood. Twenty European countries had gaps of more than 20 percentage points between older women and older men. In about 22 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Central America, the pattern was reversed and older men were more likely to live alone[1]. Our study of older women looks at the wider picture of widowhood, income and care.

National data show how this is changing. In the US, 26% of adults aged 65 and over lived alone in 2023, down from 29% in 1990. The fall was among women, from 38% to 31%; among older men the share rose, from 15% to 19%[3]. Living alone is more common with age, at 38% of people aged 85 and over against 24% of those aged 65 to 84, and it differs by ethnicity: 32% of older Black adults lived alone, compared with 27% of White, 19% of Hispanic and 14% of Asian older adults[3].

Share of US adults aged 65 and over living alone, by sex, 1990 and 2023Percentage of US adults aged 65 and over living alone: all, 29% in 1990 and 26% in 2023; women, 38% in 1990 and 31% in 2023; men, 15% in 1990 and 19% in 2023.199020230%10%20%30%40%All aged 65+29%26%Women aged 65+38%31%Men aged 65+15%19%
Analysis of decennial census and American Community Survey microdata. Source: Pew Research Center, December 2025.

In Japan, by contrast, living alone in later life has risen steeply. In 1980, 4.3% of men and 11.2% of women aged 65 and over lived alone; by the 2020 census it was 15.0% of men and 22.1% of women, and a 2024 national projection puts it at 26.1% and 29.3% by 2050[4]. In the UK, about 8.6 million people lived alone in 2025, and 49.6% of them were aged 65 or over, up from 46.9% in 2015; of older people living alone, 63.9% were women[5]. The oldest old are most likely of all to live alone; see our study of people aged 85 and over.

Share of people aged 65 and over living alone in Japan, 1980, 2020 and projected 2050Percentage of men and women aged 65 and over in Japan living alone: in 1980, 4.3% of men and 11.2% of women; in 2020, 15.0% of men and 22.1% of women; projected for 2050, 26.1% of men and 29.3% of women.WomenMen0%10%20%30%1980 (census)11.2%4.3%2020 (census)22.1%15.0%2050 (projection)29.3%26.1%
Census figures to 2020; 2050 is a projection by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (Household Projections for Japan, 2024), not a forecast. Source: Cabinet Office of Japan, Annual Report on the Ageing Society FY2025, Chart 4.

Living alone is not the same as being lonely, but loneliness affects a large minority of older people

Researchers separate three things that are often run together. Living alone is a household arrangement. Social isolation is having few social contacts. Loneliness is the painful feeling that one’s connections fall short of what one wants. Many people who live alone are well connected, and many people who live with others are lonely. That distinction matters for policy: counting one-person households does not tell a service who needs support.

The WHO Commission on Social Connection, reporting in 2025, estimated that about 1 in 6 people worldwide felt lonely between 2014 and 2023, with higher levels in low-income countries (about 24%) than in richer countries (about 11%). For older adults it highlighted isolation: “Up to 1 in 3 older adults are isolated”, based on studies from 1990 to 2022[6]. WHO’s 2021 advocacy brief cited studies finding that 20–34% of older people in China, India, the US and the regions of Europe and Latin America are lonely[2].

Pooled studies give similar answers. A 2021 meta-analysis of 39 studies covering 120,000 older people in 29 high-income countries put the prevalence of loneliness at 28.5%, with 7.9% severely lonely; it was 27.6% at ages 65 to 75 and 31.3% over 75[7]. A 2022 analysis of data from 113 countries could pool estimates for adults only in Europe, where loneliness among older adults ranged from 5.2% in northern Europe to 21.3% in eastern Europe[8]. Loneliness is higher still in care homes: a review of 13 studies with 5,115 residents estimated that 61% experienced moderate loneliness and 35% severe loneliness[9].

Living alone also shapes other pressures. In a survey reported in Japan’s 2025 government report on the ageing society, people living alone were much more likely than those living with others to express anxiety about their household finances[4].

Isolation, loneliness and living alone are each linked with earlier death and dementia, as associations rather than proof of cause

The best-known synthesis of the health evidence, a 2015 meta-analysis by Holt-Lunstad and colleagues, pooled long-term studies that followed people over time and adjusted for other factors. It found that social isolation was associated with 1.29 times the odds of death during follow-up, loneliness with 1.26 times and living alone with 1.32 times, “an average of 29%, 26%, and 32% increased likelihood of mortality, respectively”[10]. These are average associations across studies, not a prediction for any individual; the authors also found that social deficits were more predictive of death in samples with an average age under 65 than in older samples. Living alone carries different risks for someone in good health with a wide circle of friends than for someone who is unwell and rarely sees anyone.

The WHO Commission estimated that loneliness was linked to 871,000 deaths a year worldwide between 2014 and 2019, a modelled estimate rather than a count of death certificates. It also reported that people who are lonely are twice as likely to become depressed, and that social disconnection is linked with a higher risk of memory problems and dementia in older people[6].

For dementia specifically, a 2020 meta-analysis of 12 studies found that living alone was associated with a 1.30 times higher risk of developing dementia (relative risk 1.30, 95% confidence interval 1.15 to 1.46)[11]. The authors calculated a population attributable fraction of 8.9%, using the prevalence of living alone from UK census data: a modelled estimate of the share of cases that might be linked to living alone if the association were causal, not proof that living alone causes dementia. People who live alone may also be diagnosed later, or have fewer people to notice early changes, which can affect such studies. Our study of dementia risk factors sets social isolation alongside the other potentially modifiable risks.

The direction of the link is not settled: poor health can lead to isolation as well as follow from it. And most of the research has been done in North America and Europe, as the WHO Commission itself notes[6].

Group activities and help getting online show the clearest benefits, but the evidence on what works is uneven

Many kinds of support have been tried, and the research on them is growing quickly but is often of low quality. A 2024 systematic review of 60 studies of community-living older adults found moderate-certainty evidence that group-based programmes (standardised mean difference in randomised trials −0.27) and training in using the internet (−0.22) reduce loneliness, and low-certainty evidence that group exercise may bring very small reductions[12]. These are modest effects on loneliness scales, not cures.

A 2022 meta-analysis in JAMA Network Open, drawing on 44 studies of loneliness, found the largest effects for animal therapy and for videoconferencing in long-term care, but with wide variation between studies, and it rated the overall quality of evidence as very low[13]. Technology is not a shortcut on its own: a 2021 meta-analysis of digital technology interventions found “no evidence supporting the effectiveness” of these interventions in reducing loneliness in older adults (standardised mean difference 0.02)[14]. A Campbell Collaboration evidence and gap map of digital interventions included 200 articles, and classed 72% of the systematic reviews it found as critically low quality[15].

WHO describes social skills training, peer-support and social activity groups, befriending services and cognitive behavioural therapy as promising, while noting that “evidence across interventions is uneven”. It also points beyond individual programmes, to transport, the built environment and digital inclusion[2]. The WHO Commission adds social prescribing and stronger “social infrastructure”, such as parks, libraries and public transport, while saying that more high-quality research is needed to know what really works[6].

What the evidence asks of us

The figures point to a few clear priorities for governments, health and care services, funders and the organisations that work with older people.

  • Treat social connection as a public health priority. WHO’s 2021 advocacy brief, published for the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, calls for a global coalition to raise the political priority of social isolation and loneliness, better research on effective interventions, and the scaling up of interventions that work[2]. Only eight countries have adopted national policies on social connection, according to the WHO Commission: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK (England, Scotland and Wales) and the US[6].
  • Plan for more older people living alone. Where projections exist, as in Japan, they point to rising numbers of older people living alone, men as well as women[4]. Housing, home care, transport and local services built around the assumption of a co-resident family member will leave people out.
  • Do not let low shares hide high need. In countries where few older people live alone, those who do are often among the poorest and least healthy[1]. Health, care and social protection services need to find and reach them.
  • Invest in what has the best evidence, and evaluate the rest. Group-based programmes and help getting online have the strongest evidence so far[12]; much of the rest, including many digital tools, is unproven[14][15]. Funders can require proper evaluation, especially in rural areas and low-income communities, where the WHO Commission says projects should be tested and evaluated carefully[6].
  • Build connection into places. Accessible transport, safe public spaces, libraries and community venues are the “social infrastructure” the WHO Commission identifies as one of the best ways to improve social connection[6].
  • Count it properly. Global data on older people’s living arrangements are often a decade old[1], and loneliness is measured in different ways in different countries. Regular, comparable measurement would show whether policies are working.

Language: this piece says “older people” rather than “the elderly”, and “older people living alone” rather than labels such as “the lonely”, as most older people’s and loneliness organisations prefer. It uses “living alone” for a household arrangement, “social isolation” for having few social contacts and “loneliness” for the feeling of lacking connection, and keeps them separate.

Why we're publishing this

Older people living alone are often discussed as a problem to be managed, or their independence is taken as proof that all is well. Neither is fair. The evidence shows a large group, growing in many countries, whose needs are easy to miss, because they may have no one at home to raise the alarm, fill in a form or notice when things change. We have brought together the best international data in one place so that older people’s organisations, loneliness charities, befriending services and campaigners can make their case with figures they can trust and cite. The case is theirs; our job is to set out the evidence clearly.

How to read this data

The figures come from different kinds of source, and they are not directly comparable. Living-alone shares come from censuses and household surveys, gathered by UN DESA from different years for different countries, and from national statistics offices that use their own definitions (Japan’s 2050 figures, for example, are projections, not forecasts). Most measures cover people in private households, so people in care homes are usually outside them.

Loneliness is self-reported, using different questions and scales in different surveys, so prevalence estimates vary with the method as well as the population. Pooled estimates from meta-analyses depend on which studies were available; most come from high-income countries, and much less is known about older people living alone in low- and middle-income countries. The health findings are associations from observational studies. Odds ratios and relative risks describe average differences between groups after adjustment for other factors, not the risk for any one person, and population attributable fractions are modelled estimates that assume a causal link. Intervention effects are given as standardised mean differences on loneliness scales; small numbers mean small average changes.

Use this data

Free to cite with attribution to Understanding Aging. Charities, carers' groups, campaigners and journalists are welcome to reuse these figures and charts. For the underlying figures as a spreadsheet, get in touch.

Suggested citation: Understanding Aging (2026). Living Alone in Later Life: Who, Where, and What It Means for Health. https://understandingaging.org/research/older-people-living-alone

Important: This article summarises published research and statistics for general information. It is not medical, care or financial advice and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or predict anything about an individual. If you have concerns about your own or someone else's memory or health, please speak to a GP or another qualified health professional.

Sources

  1. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Measuring household and living arrangements of older persons around the world: the United Nations Database on the Households and Living Arrangements of Older Persons 2019. Technical Paper No. 2020/03. United Nations, 2020. un.org/development/desa/pd/…living_arrangements_of_older_persons_2019.pdf
  2. World Health Organization. New advocacy brief highlights serious consequences of social isolation and loneliness on the health of older people, calls for greater political priority to the issue (Social isolation and loneliness among older people: advocacy brief). WHO, 2021. who.int/news/item/29-07-2021-new-advocacy-brief…
  3. Pew Research Center. A smaller share of older US adults live alone today than in 1990. Pew Research Center, 2025. pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/12/04/…
  4. Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. Annual Report on the Ageing Society FY2025 (summary). Cabinet Office of Japan, 2025. www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/english/annualreport/2025/pdf/2025.pdf
  5. Office for National Statistics. Families and households in the UK: 2025. ONS, 2026. ons.gov.uk/…/familiesandhouseholds/2025
  6. WHO Commission on Social Connection. From loneliness to social connection: charting a path to healthier societies. Plain language summary. World Health Organization, 2025. cdn.who.int/…/whocsc-plainlanguage-en_comp.pdf
  7. Chawla et al. Prevalence of loneliness amongst older people in high-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 2021. europepmc.org/article/MED/34310643
  8. Surkalim et al. The prevalence of loneliness across 113 countries: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, 2022. europepmc.org/article/MED/35140066
  9. Gardiner et al. What is the prevalence of loneliness amongst older people living in residential and nursing care homes? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Age and Ageing, 2020. europepmc.org/article/MED/32396600
  10. Holt-Lunstad J, et al. Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2015. europepmc.org/article/MED/25910392
  11. Desai et al. Living alone and risk of dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ageing Research Reviews, 2020. europepmc.org/article/MED/32659336
  12. Shekelle PG, et al. Interventions to reduce loneliness in community-living older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2024. europepmc.org/article/MED/38200279
  13. Hoang P, et al. Interventions associated with reduced loneliness and social isolation in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Network Open, 2022. europepmc.org/article/MED/36251294
  14. Shah SGS, et al. Evaluation of the effectiveness of digital technology interventions to reduce loneliness in older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2021. europepmc.org/article/MED/34085942
  15. Welch V, et al. Digital interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness in older adults: an evidence and gap map. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 2023. europepmc.org/article/MED/38024780