Loneliness can be difficult to see from the outside. A person may attend classes, join activities, exchange messages and spend time around other people, yet still feel profoundly disconnected.
That experience is increasingly being reported by teenagers and young adults. According to the 2025 World Health Organization Social Connection Commission report, young people feel the loneliest of any age group. Between 17% and 21% of people aged 13 to 29 report feeling lonely.
The figures do not mean that every young person is lonely, or that loneliness is rising everywhere. But a study surveying more than 1 million young people across 38 countries found that youth loneliness increased in many regions between 2002 and 2022. Studies from Germany, Australia and the UK have also reported an uptick in loneliness and social isolation among teenagers and young adults.
Loneliness is not simply about being alone
Personal accounts help show what those statistics can look like in everyday life. One 20-year-old woman described university as one of the loneliest periods of her life: eating lunch alone, attending class, studying and repeating the same routine.
A 25-year-old man wrote online about experiencing “touch starvation”, missing hugs and cuddles and fearing he would be alone forever. Other young people describe a less visible form of loneliness: being busy, socially active or surrounded by peers without feeling understood.
Usha Makkena said extracurricular activities and an active social life did not protect her from a persistent sense of disconnection. What she wanted was not necessarily more people around her, she said, but a deeper feeling of being understood and genuinely connected.
Nenyasha Dongo described a similar gap after moving to Sydney for university. After days without establishing relationships with peers, she would return to a quiet home.
A difficult period of transition
The move from school into university, vocational training or work has long been an inflection point for loneliness, according to Michelle Lim, author of The Lonely Generation. Established friendships may change or disappear, while new routines and relationships have not yet formed.
Some encounters remain brief. Mihindi Pathinyake described people exchanging Instagram accounts after meeting, then never speaking again. Social media can make contact easy, but it does not always turn an introduction into a relationship.
Lim argues that young people are being offered fewer opportunities to build meaningful connections. Her analysis points to several pressures: hyper-competitive education, digital technology, the long tail of Covid, smaller families, the decline of third spaces, high living costs, hybrid work and learning, the decline of religion and automation.
These are presented as aggravating factors, not a single explanation for youth loneliness. Experiences also vary between people and communities.
The complicated role of digital life
Social media is not simply the enemy. Makkena said it helped her maintain relationships, and Lim notes that digital communities can support young people who are not accepted or understood in their offline environments.
At the same time, social platforms can create the impression that everyone else has already found a close social group. Lim is concerned that digital use may sometimes blunt the rewards of face-to-face interaction, or make real-life connection feel more difficult for people who are already lonely.
She describes this as a “loneliness loop”: loneliness can make social interaction feel more threatening, which can lead to retreat and deeper loneliness. This is Lim’s analysis rather than a universal account of how loneliness develops.
Making room for connection
Lim argues that children need rest, free play and empty time. Those unstructured spaces can allow them to practise organic social interaction and develop a sense of identity outside their families.
Her wider argument is that loneliness should not be treated only as an individual problem. If young people have fewer places and opportunities to meet, talk and form lasting relationships, the surrounding social world also deserves attention.
For individuals, the accounts in this story suggest that a full schedule is not the same as connection. Maintaining existing relationships, making space for unstructured interaction and seeking relationships built on understanding may matter more than simply being around more people.
Lim describes youth loneliness as a signal that society needs to reassess how its social world is organised. The challenge is not to eliminate solitude, but to ensure that young people have genuine opportunities to belong.
AI tools were used to assist with the preparation of this article.
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