LONELY-EU Policy Brief No. 5
Key findings
- About fifty researchers, policymakers, and other non-academics worked together to identify and rank the research questions on loneliness that matter most to both research and policy.
- The resulting research agenda covers four priority areas: how loneliness is defined and measured, its individual and macro-level risk factors, its impacts on individuals and societies, and effective interventions.
- Current evidence on loneliness interventions is not yet sufficient to say what works for whom across different populations and settings. The brief asks for research comparing population-wide and targeted programmes, their cost-effectiveness, and their long-term effects.
- The authors recommend giving loneliness the same policy visibility as employment, poverty, and education by including it in national social reporting frameworks and international monitoring systems.
- Publicly funded loneliness interventions should meet evidence quality standards, and every newly funded loneliness programme should have evaluation built in from the start.
Executive summary
Addressing loneliness effectively requires policies that are grounded in sound scientific evidence. This policy brief identifies the next big questions on loneliness that are relevant for both research and policy, focusing on four priority areas: (1) conceptualization and measurement of loneliness, (2) individual and macro-level risk factors, (3) impacts of loneliness on individuals and societies, and (4) effective interventions.
How to cite
Maike Luhmann, Libor Potočár, Yeeun Archer Lee, Fredrica Nyqvist, Pauline Kleinschlömer, Pamela Qualter, Hans Rocha IJzerman, Mathias Lasgaard, Judith Merkies (2026). Bridging the Gap between Research and Policy: The Next Big Questions in Loneliness Research. LONELY-EU Policy Brief No. 5 Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20665847
