The connection between residents’ feeling of loneliness and their living environment

Loneliness is considered to be a public health issue due to its connection with other various mental and physical illnesses. Loneliness is a subjective negative feeling when someone desires for more or better-quality social relations than they have in reality, also referred to as social and emotional loneliness respectively. While proportionally the population suffering from long-term loneliness is low (<10%), in absolute numbers this affects thousands of individuals in countries, and prevalence may have increased during the pandemic. This paper investigates the connection between residents’ loneliness and their living environments. This is firstly studied through an international literature review, followed by analysis of a large dataset of over 13000 Finnish survey respondents in 2016 and their living environment. To create more resilient living environments that help reduce risk of loneliness, understanding the conditions that support or hinder social relations is crucial. Findings highlight that over 1500 (11%) respondents indicated being lonely. In this study, at the individual level generally loneliness decreased with age, increased household income and education level, and with being female. Living alone and at dorms with poor indoor environmental quality (e.g., lack of daylight or plants) was also a risk factor. More people reported loneliness when living in an apartment block and in smaller units compared to other (larger) housing types with their own kitchen. Feelings of satisfaction with one’s home environment, and enjoyment of being at home, appeared to decrease the risk of loneliness. At the macro-level, residents living in more remote locations reported loneliness more than those living less remote. Literature findings suggest that neighbourhood level community and physical characteristics play an important role in mitigation loneliness risk, such as safety and security, feelings of belonging and being part of cohesive communities in attractive neighbourhoods with sufficient social amenities and greenery.