India ranks 36th in the countries with most individuals self-reported loneliness
Only 9% of Indians felt that they were ‘not at all connected’
The social connectedness survey put India in the 105th position among 142 countries
Updated: Nov 2nd, 2023
With 57% of the people in India either feeling very lonely, fairly lonely or somewhat lonely, the Global State of Social Connections report by tech giant Meta and Gallup, an American analytics and advisory company, put India 36th among 142 countries with self-reported loneliness.
However, talking about social connectedness, only 9% felt that they were ‘not at all connected’, with 27% stating they were fairly connected and 38% feeling very connected.
Self-reported loneliness in India
| Very lonely | Fairly lonely | A little lonely | Not at all lonely |
| 14% | 15% | 28% | 42% |
Social connectedness in India
| Very connected | Fairly connected | A little connected | Not at all connected |
| 38% | 27% | 25% | 9% |
India’s standing in the state of social connection
The social connectedness survey put India in the 105th position among 142 countries, well behind not only countries like the US (58), the UK (20), Australia (32), but even behind its neighbours, Sri Lanka (44), Nepal (28), and Pakistan (96).
Similarly, India’s rank at 36 was above Sri Lanka (37), the US (98), and the UK (106). However, Nepal (12) and Pakistan (17) made up for more self-reported loneliness.
World’s most and least socially connected countries
Globally, the rates of social connectedness indicate that 72% of people feel very or fairly connected, whereas 6% feel not connected at all.
Mongolia topped the list with 95% of people saying that they felt very or fairly connected socially, with Kosovo following closely. The other top five countries included Taiwan, Slovenia, and Sweden.
| Country | Very + fairly connected | A little connected | Not connected at all |
| Mongolia | 95% | 4% | 1% |
| Kosovo | 93% | 6% | 1% |
| Taiwan | 92% | 6% | 2% |
| Slovenia | 91% | 8% | 1% |
| Sweden | 90% | 8% | 2% |
On the other hand, subjects from the Dominican Republic felt the least socially connected, with Northern Cyprus, Morocco, Benin, Republic of Congo joining them at the bottom of the table.
| Country | Very + fairly connected | A little connected | Not connected at all |
| Republic of Congo | 50% | 30% | 18% |
| Benin | 49% | 43% | 8% |
| Morocco | 49% | 42% | 8% |
| Northern Cyprus | 48% | 40% | 11% |
| Dominican Republic | 47% | 36% | 12% |
Countries with most and least self-reported loneliness
With self-reported loneliness, globally, 24% of the surveyed felt very or fairly lonely, whereas 49% of global subjects felt not at all lonely.
The countries with the most reported loneliness are Lesotho, Philippines, and Uganda, all the countries where more than 50% of people felt very or fairly lonely. Botswana and Afghanistan also stood at 50% of people feeling very or fairly lonely.
| Country | Very + fairly lonely | A little lonely | Not at all lonely |
| Lesotho | 58% | 14% | 27% |
| Philippines | 57% | 19% | 21% |
| Uganada | 53% | 25% | 22% |
| Botswana | 50% | 25% | 25% |
| Afghanistan | 50% | 37% | 13% |
The other end of the spectrum, with the least self-reported loneliness, stood a number of European countries including Latvia, Ukraine, Slovenia, and Germany. The fifth place was taken by Asia’s Vietnam.
| Country | Very + fairly lonely | A little lonely | Not at all lonely |
| Latvia | 7% | 19% | 74% |
| Ukraine | 6% | 32% | 61% |
| Slovenia | 4% | 22% | 72% |
| Germany | 6% | 20% | 73% |
| Vietnam | 5% | 9% | 86% |
Social connectedness and self-reported loneliness by age
Analysing the report by age, the percentage of people feeling socially connected interestingly did not change a lot across ages, ranging from 71-75%, with people aged 65+ feeling the most connected to people.
With self-reported loneliness, it was once again the age group of 65+ that felt the least lonely at 17%, and ages 19-29 feeling the most lonely at 27%.
Globally, 73% of men stated that they felt very or fairly connected, and 72% of women said the same.
On the other hand, 24% of men and women reported being very or fairly lonely.
