LONELY-EU has published its first research deliverable, the EU Loneliness Explorer. It gives an accessible overview of the data that already exist on loneliness and social isolation across Europe and the UK.
The team systematically identified hundreds of datasets. For each one, they documented how loneliness is measured. All of this information now sits in a single searchable database.
The database helps researchers, policymakers, and practitioners see quickly which data are available and how comparable the different measures are. It also shows where important gaps remain.
To make the database easy to use, the team built an interactive online tool. Users can browse the datasets and filter them by the topics that matter to their own work.
The Explorer is part of the project’s wider work on measurement. Without reliable and comparable data, it is hard to tell whether loneliness in Europe is rising or falling, or whether interventions make a difference. Development of the project’s interactive databases is led by coordinator Prof. Dr. Maike Luhmann of Ruhr University Bochum.
