Are Men or Women Lonelier? Loneliness Statistics by Gender (2026, 48 Data Points)

Ask who is lonelier, men or women, and the honest answer is: it barely matters. Across the biggest studies, men and women report almost the same loneliness. What moves it is everything else. In one eight-country study, being divorced rather than married moved loneliness about five times as much as being a woman rather than a man.

This page collects 48 data points from six sources: a meta-analysis, the World Health Organization, Gallup and Meta, Pew Research Center and two academic studies. Every figure links to where it came from, the source type is named, and anything we worked out ourselves is labelled Slavia analysis.

Men vs women loneliness statistics: the key numbers

The figures above measure loneliness in different ways — pooled estimates, a meta-analysis, single surveys asking different questions. Their percentages are not interchangeable estimates of one universal loneliness rate, and the sections below keep each one with its own question.

Marriage moved loneliness 5× more than gender did in the same study.

Are men or women more likely to feel lonely?

Neither, on the best evidence. The two broadest sources — a meta-analysis and the WHO's global estimate — find a gap close to zero. A few single studies find women reporting somewhat more loneliness, but no large study finds men clearly lonelier.

Sources: Maes et al. (meta-analysis); WHO (modelled estimate); Gallup and Meta, Pew, Framingham, Abdalla et al. (primary surveys). Gap column: Slavia analysis, women minus men.

Read the gap column, not the percentages. The largest gender gap on this table is 6.2 points. As the next sections show, age, money and marital status routinely produce gaps of 14 to 24 points.

1. A review of nearly 400,000 people found little difference

A 2019 meta-analysis in the European Journal of Personality combined 751 research findings covering 399,798 people and found that the average difference in loneliness between men and women was very small.

A meta-analysis pools many studies, which makes it the strongest single answer to "is there a gender gap?" It also means one unusual survey cannot swing the result. The finding does not mean every study agrees — results still vary by age, place and how loneliness is measured — but the overall pattern is close to a tie.

Source: Maes et al., European Journal of Personality, 2019 (meta-analysis)

2. 16.1% of females and 15.4% of males worldwide experience loneliness

The WHO's 2025 report estimated that 16.1% of females and 15.4% of males worldwide experience loneliness. The difference is 0.7 percentage points, and the uncertainty ranges around the two estimates overlap, so they do not provide strong evidence that either sex is lonelier worldwide. Put in relative terms, women's estimated rate is about 1.05 times men's (Slavia analysis).

Source: World Health Organization, 2025 (modelled estimate)

3. 24% of men and 24% of women across 142 countries felt lonely

Gallup and Meta surveyed people in 142 countries and found 24% of men and 24% of women felt very or fairly lonely. An exact tie.

The survey asked about a particular level of loneliness — "very or fairly" — so its 24% is not the same measure as the WHO's 15–16%. Comparing them tells you about the question, not about a change in loneliness.

Source: Gallup and Meta, 2023 (primary survey)

4. 16% of U.S. adults feel lonely all or most of the time

Pew Research Center found 16% of U.S. adults felt lonely or isolated all or most of the time, with no significant difference between men and women. This question is about frequent loneliness, not whether someone has ever felt lonely, which is why it lands lower than the past-year figures below.

Source: Pew Research Center, 2025 (primary survey)

5. Two studies found women somewhat lonelier

An analysis of the Framingham Heart Study, using responses collected between 1980 and 2019, found 23.7% of women and 17.5% of men reported loneliness at least one day a week. At three or more days a week, the rates were 8.8% for women and 5.6% for men.

A separate 2026 study of 7,997 adults in eight countries found 41.1% of women and 36.6% of men reported loneliness in the past 12 months.

Neither study proves women are always lonelier. Framingham is one U.S. town's cohort, published as a conference abstract, and the eight-country study asked about loneliness at any point in a year. But together they are the strongest evidence that, where a gap exists, it leans toward women — not men.

Sources: Gonzales et al., Innovation in Aging, 2025 (conference abstract); Abdalla et al., Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2026 (primary survey)

How much does the definition of loneliness change the number?

More than gender does. The same population of men can be 15% lonely or 37% lonely depending on which question was asked.

Felt alone in past year (8 countries)36.6%

Very or fairly lonely (Gallup)24%

Lonely 1+ day a week (Framingham)17.5%

Global estimate (WHO)15.4%

Lonely 3+ days a week (Framingham)5.6%

Each bar is a different study and question about men. Do not average them. Sources: Abdalla et al. 2026, Gallup and Meta 2023, Framingham via Gonzales et al. 2025, WHO 2025.

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This is why "X% of men are lonely" is close to meaningless without the question attached. A past-year question catches anyone who felt alone even once; a "three days a week" question catches only chronic loneliness. Both are real. They are not the same thing.

Do men and women experience loneliness differently by age?

Yes — and the direction of the gender gap flips with age. Girls are lonelier than boys in adolescence; men edge ahead slightly in early and middle adulthood; women are lonelier again after 60. Across every age band, though, age moves loneliness more than gender.

6. 46.8% of adults aged 18–24 reported loneliness

The eight-country study, covering Brazil, France, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Türkiye and the United States, found 46.8% of adults aged 18–24 reported loneliness in the past year, compared with 30.4% of adults aged 55 and older.

That is a 16.4-point gap — young adults about 1.54 times as likely to report loneliness as older adults, and a gap 3.6 times the size of the gender gap in the same study (Slavia analysis).

Changes in friendships, study, work and relationships may shape social life in this period, but the statistics do not show which factors explain the difference. And because the question was about feeling alone at any point in 12 months, it does not mean nearly half of young adults are lonely all the time.

Source: Abdalla et al., 2026 (primary survey)

7. The WHO's gender gap changes direction across the lifespan

Source: World Health Organization, 2025 (modelled estimate). Gap and direction: Slavia analysis. Uncertainty ranges overlap, so the small adult gaps are not clear differences.

Girls 13-1724.3%

Boys 13-1717.2%

Women 18-2916.8%

Men 18-2917.4%

Women 30-5914.5%

Men 30-5915.1%

Women 60+13%

Men 60+9.9%

Source: World Health Organization, 2025, From Loneliness to Social Connection (modelled estimates with overlapping uncertainty ranges).

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Two patterns sit inside this table:

• Adolescent girls are the loneliest group in the WHO estimates. At 24.3%, girls aged 13–17 are about 1.41 times as likely as boys the same age to be lonely — the largest gender gap in the WHO data (Slavia analysis).
• Age outweighs gender at every stage. Female loneliness falls 11.3 points from adolescence to 60+, and male loneliness falls 7.3 points. Both swings are bigger than the largest gender gap at any single age (Slavia analysis).

Interpret the adult rows carefully: a 0.6-point gap with overlapping uncertainty ranges is not evidence that men are lonelier in their twenties and thirties. It is evidence that, for most of adult life, men and women are about equally lonely.

8. 14.5% of women and 7.3% of men aged 75–84 felt lonely three or more days a week

The Framingham analysis found 14.5% of women and 7.3% of men aged 75–84 felt lonely at least three days a week. Women in that age group were about twice as likely as men to report frequent loneliness — a 7.2-point gap, the largest gender gap on this page (Slavia analysis).

One plausible contributor is that women live longer and are more likely to be widowed in their late seventies and eighties, which would tie this gap back to relationship status rather than to gender itself. The study does not test that, so treat it as a question, not a finding. It is also historical data from one U.S. cohort, published as a conference abstract.

Source: Gonzales et al., Innovation in Aging, 2025 (conference abstract)

What predicts loneliness more than gender?

Marital status, age and income — each by a wide margin. The eight-country study is the cleanest test because it measured all four in the same 7,997 people with the same question, so the gaps can be compared directly.

Source: Abdalla et al., 2026 (primary survey). Gap and multiplier columns: Slavia analysis.

Marital status (divorced vs married)24.1 pts

Age (18-24 vs 55+)16.4 pts

Income (lowest vs highest)14.1 pts

Gender (women vs men)4.5 pts

Percentage-point gap between the most and least lonely group for each factor, 7,997 adults in eight countries. Slavia analysis of Abdalla et al. 2026.

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9. Divorced and never-married respondents reported far more loneliness

In the eight-country study, 53.6% of divorced or separated respondents reported loneliness, compared with 50.2% of never-married and 29.5% of married respondents.

Divorced respondents were about 1.82 times as likely as married ones to report loneliness; never-married respondents about 1.70 times (Slavia analysis). Notice how close divorced and never-married are — 3.4 points apart. The big line is between having a partner and not having one, not between ever having had one and never.

This is an association. It does not prove marriage prevents loneliness: people can be lonely inside a relationship, single people can have deep friendships, and lonely people may be less likely to marry or stay married in the first place.

Source: Abdalla et al., 2026 (primary survey)

10. 48.1% of the lowest-income group reported loneliness

The same study found 48.1% of respondents in the lowest income group reported loneliness, compared with 34% in the highest income group — a 14.1-point gap, or about 1.41 times as likely (Slavia analysis).

Money buys the things connection often runs on: transport, a phone plan, a meal out, a hobby with a fee, a home with room for guests, time not spent on a second job. The figures do not prove low income causes loneliness, and an eight-country average should not be applied to every country, but the size of the gap is hard to ignore.

Source: Abdalla et al., 2026 (primary survey)

Do women have more emotional support than men?

They say they would turn to more people, especially friends. That gap is real and large — and it does not show up as a loneliness gap.

11. Women are 16 points more likely to turn to a friend for support

Pew found 54% of women and 38% of men said they would turn to a friend for emotional support — a 16-point gap, with women about 1.42 times as likely (Slavia analysis). Men and women reported broadly similar numbers of close friends, but women said they would seek support from a wider range of people.

Women54%

Men38%

Source: Pew Research Center, 2025, Men, Women and Social Connections (primary survey).

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12. The same survey found no significant gender gap in loneliness

Here is the puzzle. In the same Pew survey that found a 16-point gap in turning to friends, there was no significant gender difference in frequent loneliness or isolation.

That matters for the popular "male loneliness epidemic" story. Men do report fewer sources of support. Whether that translates into more loneliness is exactly what the large studies have not found.

Source: Pew Research Center, 2025 (primary survey)

Does loneliness by gender differ between countries?

Yes, enormously — far more than between the sexes. A country's overall rate can be more than double the global average.

13. 59% of men and 56% of women in the Philippines felt lonely

The Gallup and Meta report found 59% of men and 56% of women in the Philippines felt very or fairly lonely, against 24% for both men and women globally. Filipino men were about 2.5 times as likely as the global average to report loneliness (Slavia analysis) — and, unlike most of the studies above, men there reported slightly more loneliness than women.

The country gap here (35 points for men) is roughly 12 times the gender gap inside the Philippines (3 points) (Slavia analysis). Local conditions, how people interpret "lonely", and how comfortable they are saying so all shape these results. The figures cannot tell us why the rates differ.

Source: Gallup and Meta, 2023 (primary survey)

Why do the sources disagree?

Because they are answering different questions. Before quoting any loneliness statistic by gender, check which kind it is:

Three disagreements cause most of the confusion:

• Ever vs often. A past-year question produces numbers two to three times higher than a frequency question. "41% of women are lonely" and "9% of women are lonely" can both be accurate.
• Self-report and stigma. Every figure here is what people say. If men are less willing to call themselves lonely, every survey would understate men's loneliness by the same mechanism. No source on this page can measure that directly — it is the biggest unknown in the field.
• Support vs loneliness. Pew's support gap is often quoted as proof that men are lonelier. It is a different measurement, and the same survey found no loneliness gap.

There is also no reliable year-by-year series of loneliness by gender to show a trend. Framingham spans four decades, but its published summary does not break results out by year, so any claim that the gender gap is "growing" or "shrinking" is not supported by these sources.

Who funds these numbers, and which way does that skew them?

Loneliness research has more neutral funders than most topics, but not every source is neutral — including us.

• We sell companionship. Slavia is an AI companion app. Loneliness statistics are useful to companies like ours, and a page that made loneliness look larger would serve us. We have tried to do the opposite: lead with the near-zero gender gap and flag every inflated reading. Read our framing with that in mind.
• Gallup's global survey was co-funded by Meta. A social media company has an interest in framing loneliness as something "social connection" — which it sells — can fix. The data collection is Gallup's and is solid; the framing of the report is worth reading critically.
• The WHO is an advocate here. Its 2025 report comes from its Commission on Social Connection, which exists to put loneliness on the policy agenda. Its estimates are careful and show uncertainty ranges, but the report's purpose is to argue that loneliness is a serious public-health problem.
• Pew is nonpartisan and runs no campaigns. It is the most neutral source on this page, which is one reason its "no significant difference" finding deserves weight.
• Academic studies vary in strength. The meta-analysis and the eight-country study are peer-reviewed journal papers. The Framingham analysis is a conference abstract — reviewed lightly and not yet a full paper.

The net effect: advocacy-linked sources have reasons to emphasise how many people are lonely, but none of them has an obvious reason to favour one gender. On the gender question specifically, the bias risk is smaller than usual, and the most neutral sources — the meta-analysis and Pew — find the smallest gaps.

How we built this page

We collected recent research that reports loneliness for men and women separately, kept each figure with its own population and question, and did not blend or average across studies. Figures marked Slavia analysis are simple arithmetic between sourced numbers — differences, ratios and multipliers — and the inputs are shown each time. The "Last reviewed" date above shows when we last checked the sources; we will update the page as new studies are published.

If you are writing about this, the accurate way to say it is: "men and women report similar levels of loneliness; age, income and relationship status matter far more." The inaccurate ones are "men are lonelier" and "women are lonelier" without a study and a question attached.

Loneliness is also why many people try AI companions: in a 2026 survey, 56.6% of respondents named having someone to talk to or feeling less alone as the main reason someone might use one — see how many people use AI girlfriends. For what makes that kind of company feel real rather than hollow, see why memory matters more than flirting.