Looking at data from the Community Life Survey, we can see that 16-24 year-olds (9.8%) are three times as likely to say they feel lonely “often or always” as people aged 65 or over (3%) while 25-34 year-olds are twice as likely as those aged 65 or over.
This age curve holds for people who describe being lonely “some of the time”, with a quarter of people aged 16-24 saying they are lonely some of the time, compared to just 11% of those aged 65-74 and 17% for those aged 75 or over. By contrast, more than a quarter of over 65s say they “never” feel lonely, more than twice the rate as among 16-24 year-olds.