The Loneliness Index: The loneliest places for the elderly mapped

Dec 17, 2020

Care Sourcer have created a Loneliness Index to show where Britain’s elderly are struggling the most during COVID-19

Social isolation is nothing new. In fact, pre-pandemic ONS reports already illustrated the extent of loneliness, with one in four people admitting to feeling it. It’s not just an unpleasant emotion – feeling lonely is proven to have a catastrophic effect on personal health.

Whilst people aged between 18 and 24 were most likely to experience loneliness in the initial lockdown, it was older people who had to abide by the most stringent distancing measures due to their susceptibility. Unsurprisingly older people have taken the brunt of the coronavirus measures, leading to a sharp increase in loneliness and social isolation, with one in three reporting feeling lonelier in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this in mind, Care Sourcer used a culmination of people, place and population ONS data to create a Loneliness Index that reveals which areas are the loneliest and which are working the hardest to help combat the emerging isolation epidemic in older communities.

Lonely up North: Durham is the UK’s loneliest place for over-65s

The top 20 loneliest places in the UK

Lonely Rank	Region	City	Lonely Index Score
1	North East	Durham	758
2	Scotland	Edinburgh	686
3	Scotland	Glasgow	685
4	North East	Newcastle upon Tyne	678
5	Yorkshire and the Humber	Leeds	655
6	Yorkshire and the Humber	Sheffield	639
7	Yorkshire and the Humber	Bradford	624
8	Yorkshire and the Humber	Wakefield	616
9	North East	Sunderland	616
10	Yorkshire and the Humber	Doncaster	591
11	Wales	Cardiff	586
12	South West	Somerset	580
13	North West	Liverpool	577
14	Wales	Swansea	567
15	Scotland	Perth and Kinross	565
16	West Midlands	Birmingham	563
17	North West	Manchester	560
18	London	London	558
19	North East	Gateshead	557
20	Yorkshire and the Humber	York	556

Whilst nowhere in the UK has escaped the impact of 2020, it’s in the North where loneliness has been most acutely felt since the beginning of lockdown. The North East region, specifically Durham tops our list as the loneliest place in the UK. Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland also rank in the top ten at numbers four and nine respectively.

In fact the top 10 loneliest places are all located above the Watford Gap, with the two major Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow coming in at number two and three, and all the other top spots being located within the Yorkshire and the Humber region.

The South East, the least lonely region of the UK.

Despite the reputation of big cities as isolating places to live, it’s London and areas in the surrounding regions that score lowest in our lonely index. The index revealed that the most sociable regions were dominated by the South East, East of England and London regions.

The least lonely places in the UK

Least Lonely Rank	Region	Area	Lonely Index Score
1	London	City of London	145
2	South East	Slough	167
3	Outer London	Kingston upon Thames	193
4	South East	Reading	196
5	East of England	Luton	207
6	Outer London	Sutton	219
7	South East	Wokingham	229
8	East of England	Southend-on-Sea	269
9	East of England	Peterborough	276
10	Outer London	Harrow	298
11	Wales	Merthyr Tydfil	300
12	North West	Blackburn	305
13	East of England	Bedford	307
14	South East	Windsor	307
15	Wales	Torfaen	314
16	Wales	Aberystwyth	315
17	Wales	Holyhead	318
18	South East	Southampton	326
19	South East	Ryde	331
20	South East	Portsmouth	340

The City of London itself is officially the least lonely place to live in Britain, scoring 600 points lower than the UK’s loneliest place. London is followed closely by Slough at number two and Kingston Upon Thames pipping Reading to the post in the last spot of the top three.

North of the border in Scotland is the happiest place in the UK.

Whilst the Scottish capital and Glasgow may be in the running for two of the loneliest places in the UK, the two happiest places to live are also located north of the border. Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides is the most joyous place to live, placing first on our happiness index. Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands places second, suggesting that smaller tight knit communities are where older people feel most affirmation. Bournemouth on England’s south coast ranks third,with our top three towns all being by the seaside. Maybe there’s something in that sea air after all.

The top 10 happiest UK places

Happiness Rank	Region	Area	Happiness Index
1	Scotland	Stornoway	8.0
2	Scotland	Kirkwall	8.0
3	South West	Bournemouth	7.7
4	South East	Windsor	7.7
5	North West	Blackburn	7.7
6	Wales	Holyhead	7.6
7	East of England	Luton	7.6
8	North West	Wigan	7.6
9	South East	Reading	7.6
10	South East	Wokingham	7.6
11	Wales	Barry	7.6
12	North East	Darlington	7.6
13	West Midlands	Solihull	7.59
14	South West	Plymouth	7.59
15	South West	Somerset	7.59
16	South East	Maidstone	7.58
17	South East	Portsmouth	7.56
18	South West	Torquay	7.56
19	East of England	Leicester	7.55
20	North West	Warrington	7.55

Dudley tops the chart as the saddest place in Britian

The West Midlands town of Dudley is officially the saddest place in the United Kingdom followed closely by its East Midlands counterpart, Nottingham. The Scottish university town of Dundee is number three on the list, with the rest of the top ten being geographically disparate, including the North East city of Newcastle, which is also one of the loneliest in the UK. The Welsh town of Aberdare is fifth, followed by Doncaster, Glasgow and Middlesbrough.

The top 20 least happy places in the UK

Least Happy Rank	Region	City	Happiness Index
1	West Midlands	Dudley	7.0
2	East of England	Nottingham	7.1
3	Scotland	Dundee	7.1
4	North East	Newcastle upon Tyne	7.1
5	Wale	Aberdare	7.1
6	Yorkshire at the Humber	Kingston upon Hull	7.1
7	Yorkshire at the Humber	Doncaster	7.2
8	Outer London	Harrow	7.2
9	Scotland	Glasgow	7.2
10	North East	Middlesbrough	7.2
11	North East	Sunderland	7.25
12	West Midlands	Wolverhampton	7.26
13	West Midlands	Telford and Wrekin	7.27
14	South West	Bristol	7.27
15	North East	Gateshead	7.27
16	Scotland	Greenock	7.29
17	North East	Hartlepool	7.31
18	Wales	Neath	7.32
19	South East	Brighton	7.32
20	South West	Bath	7.32

People reaching out in a good old fashioned way

While we live in a more interconnected society than ever before, if anything the ease of communication counterintuitively seems to have led to increased social isolation. Perhaps this is why a number of people have turned to more analogue ways of forming a connection.

Top 20 places where elderly people are trying to reach out

The number of people searching for elderly pen pal schemes across the UK has shot up this year across the country. Essex, London and Birmingham are the places in which people have been most eager to join projects, while the lowest engagement came from the North West. Specifically Hull and Doncaster, the two Yorkshire towns which also feature as two of the saddest places in the UK.

Rank	Region	Area	Search Volume for ‘elderly pen pal’ scheme
1	East of England	Essex	110
2	London	London	100
3	West Midlands	Birmingham	90
4	Wales	Cardiff	90
5	Yorkshire and the Humber	Sheffield	90
6	South West	Bournemouth	80
7	East of England	Southend-on-Sea	80
8	North West	Manchester	80
9	Yorkshire and the Humber	Leeds	80
10	North East	Newcastle upon Tyne	80
11	South West	Somerset	70
12	South West	Plymouth	70
13	East of England	Leicester	70
14	South West	Swindon	70
15	East of England	Peterborough	70
16	Scotland	Edinburgh	70
17	North East	Sunderland	70
18	Outer London	Sutton	70
19	Yorkshire and the Humber	Doncaster	70
20	Yorkshire and the Humber	Hull	68

Methodology

To calculate the Loneliness Index, four metrics were used (divorces, self reported health, age and household size) to create individual scores that were combined to create the overall Loneliness Index. High divorces, high levels of a low satisfaction score in regards to health, large populations of 65+ and smaller households all contribute to loneliness according to the UK government’s ONS study. Those scoring higher were assigned bigger Index Scores.

The Happiness Index was calculated using the ONS wellbeing data set which estimates level of personal wellbeing for constituencies across the UK.

Search volumes for ‘elderly pen pal’ scheme was collected from Keyword.io. For areas where there was no data, the region’s average was used.

Full data set here

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