Loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from five European countries

Alessio Rebechi, Anthony Lepinteur, Andrew Clark, Nicholas Rohde, Claus Vögele and D’Ambrosio, Conchita

Economics & Human Biology, 2024, vol. 55, issue C

Abstract: We use quarterly panel data from the COME-HERE survey covering five European countries to analyse three facets of the experience of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, in terms of prevalence, loneliness peaked in April 2020, followed by a U-shape pattern in the rest of 2020, and then remained relatively stable throughout 2021 and 2022. We then establish the individual determinants of loneliness and compare them to those found in the literature predating the COVID-19 pandemic. As in previous work, women are lonelier, and partnership, education, income, and employment protect against loneliness. However, the pandemic substantially shifted the age profile: it is now the youngest who are the loneliest. We last show that pandemic policies affected loneliness, which rose with containment policies but fell with government economic support. Conversely, the intensity of the pandemic itself, via the number of recent COVID-19 deaths, had only a minor impact. The experience of the pandemic has thus shown that public policy can influence societal loneliness trends.

Keywords: Loneliness; COVID-19; COME-HERE; Age; Pandemic policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 I18 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Working Paper: Loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from five European countries (2024)
Working Paper: Loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from five European countries (2024)
Working Paper: Loneliness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Five European Countries (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:55:y:2024:i:c:s1570677x24000790

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2024.101427

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