Why Young Adults?

The project’s events and activities are targeted at young adults between the ages of 20-39, as there is now a considerable body of research that demonstrates that it is the age group that is the most disproportionally affected by loneliness

In fact, statistics shows that young adults between the ages 16-34 are more than twice as likely to struggle with loneliness than those over 70, and over five times more likely to struggle with chronic loneliness.

Meanwhile, the proportion of under-35s saying they have just one or no close friends has trebled in 10 years, from 7% to 22%.

They were the age group most badly affected by loneliness caused the pandemic and also the group most disproportionately impact by the stigma of loneliness and so unlikely to speak out about their experience, or seek help from medical professionals or those closest to them.

Long-term Impact

Moreover, research by the University of Rochester in New York found that there was a strong relationship between the social connections young adults have and their emotional health later in life.

One explanation for this is because the number of connections you have sharply drops by nearly half after the age of 25, with the largest drop-off in friends in the life course often occurring when people get married and have children.

As a result, the connections you form in your 20s and 30s may be incredibly influential in ensuring you have quality connections in later life.

Impacted by the Cost of Living Crisis

The cost of living crisis has played a significant role in exacerbating the epidemic of loneliness we see today. And once again, it is young adults that have been worst impacted by this, with adults aged 25 to 34 years understood to be 3.4x as likely to struggle with the cost of living crisis than average Briton.

This is partly as the real value of workers’ pay in the UK has been falling at the fastest rate for 20 years as wage increases were considerably outstripped by inflation and significant rising living costs. High rental costs have compounded this issue, with renters now 4.7 times as likely to struggle amidst the cost of living crisis.

And in London which has the highest population of young adults in the UK, this is a particular problem as it is also the most unaffordable city in the UK to pay rent – with research finding 4 in 10 young adults are paying unaffordable rent.

One of the safeguards against the cost of living crisis is savings. However, young adults have the lowest savings of working age adults and in a survey of 2,000 UK adults, conducted in April 2022 for Wealth at work, 50% of 18–34 year olds say the increase in the cost of living has meant that they have reduced or stopped any regular savings.

The cost of living crisis has also had a significant impact on the social lives of young people, with a UK Youth survey showing that over a third (36%) saying the crisis had made them more lonely as they had to reduce their social life to save money.

In a Which survey, the sacrifices meant that 4 out of 10 (40%) said they became more distant from their friends, with one female respondent commenting:

“The cost of living has made me stop enjoying going out and attending social events, causing me to be a lot more isolated from human contact and my sense of loneliness and anxiety has increased exponentially.“

To counteract this, one of our guiding principles is that the project’s activities and events should be free or at cost, as we don’t believe cost should be yet a further barrier to overcoming loneliness.

Our events provide valuable social spaces for young adults to connect and overcome their experience of loneliness without the cost implication.

The project also works with a range of venues and partners to secure discounts and exclusive experiences for our community, so they can try out some of the very best things to do in London at a low-cost.

Rise of Remote Working

The rise of remote working has also served to increase loneliness amongst young adults.

In a survey of 2,000 UK and US remote workers, a large proportion felt disproportionately isolated from others, and believed that working from home was negatively impacting their ability to build relationships and sustain social connections both in and outside work.

In fact, 67% of workers aged 18-34 stated that since working remotely, they have found it harder to make friends and maintain relationships with work colleagues. Whereas, 71% felt that their work colleagues had become distant, and 54% attributed remote working as the main cause for drifting apart.

In research conducted more than a decade before the pandemic about remote work among journalists, the organisational psychologist Lynn Holdsworth found that full-time remote working, increased loneliness by 67 percentage points.

Based on data from 2019, the 2020 State of Remote Work report issued by the social-media management firm Buffer showed that loneliness is the biggest struggle remote workers say they face, tied with problems of collaboration and communication.

In the first study to examine the effects of Zoom since the pandemic’s onset, psychologists at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Cambridge surveyed 119 young adults on their mental health and found that “there was no association between the frequency of virtual social interactions and well-being.”

That leaves us with the conclusion that while remote technologies might be a necessary substitute for in-person work during the pandemic, they are inadequate to meet our human need for social contact.

Under-provision of Support

Alarming ONS statistics indicating that nearly 60% of young people report to experience some degree of loneliness on a weekly basis.

And yet despite this – funding and attention continues to focus on the elderly population, whilst there is a gross undersupply of interventions and dedicated organisations currently operating explicitly set-up to tackle loneliness amongst young adults.

This is made worse as after the age of 21, young adults usually don’t have access to social structures, support and opportunities through youth organisations, standard or higher education. 

Mental health services are significantly overstretched, given the high cost and resources needed to deliver psychological support (e.g. counselling/therapy) and there’s simply not enough resources to tackle this loneliness epidemic.

That’s why we work on the front line to tackle loneliness through the provision of regular community activities, online spaces and initiatives designed to build friendships, community and connection.

Through these low-cost, scalable and popular provisions, we provide effective prevention and intervention to young adults struggling with loneliness.