Loneliness hits quality of life hardest among 15 to 24-year-olds, Monash study finds

Young people aged 15 to 24 take a bigger hit to their everyday quality of life from loneliness than any other age group, according to a Monash University study that the university highlighted on 12 October 2026. The research, led by Dr Fikru Rizal with Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos as senior author and published in the journal Value in Health, analysed four waves of Australia's long-running HILDA household survey. It separated two things that are often lumped together: loneliness, which is the feeling of being alone, and social isolation, which is having few social contacts. The journal has named the paper one of its 2026 Editor's Choice articles.

The study measures something called health utility, a score that health economists use to compare very different conditions on one scale. A score of 1.0 means full health and 0 means death. Differences that look small on paper, a few hundredths of a point, are the same kind of gaps used to judge whether a treatment for a physical illness is worth paying for. By putting loneliness on that scale, the researchers give policymakers a way to compare it with other health problems and to ask whether programmes that tackle it are good value. Professor Mihalopoulos made that point when presenting the work.

The age pattern runs against a common assumption. Public conversations about loneliness often focus on older people living alone. This study found that older Australians were more likely to be socially isolated, but that the feeling of loneliness was more common among the young and was tied to a sharper fall in their wellbeing. Late teens and early twenties are a period of change: moving for study or work, ending school friendships, starting jobs and, for many, living alone for the first time. A person can have a full contact list and a busy social media feed and still feel alone.

The second finding, that being both lonely and isolated is worse than the sum of the two, suggests the problems feed each other. Someone who feels alone may withdraw further, and someone with few contacts has fewer chances to feel connected.

There are limits. The study shows an association in survey data, not proof that loneliness causes poorer quality of life; poor health can also make people lonelier. The data are Australian, so the exact numbers may not carry over to India or elsewhere, though surveys in many countries also point to high loneliness among young adults.

Short-term: The study adds weight to calls for schools, colleges and employers to treat loneliness as a wellbeing issue, not a private matter, and gives young people a reason to take the feeling seriously rather than brush it off.

Long-term: Because the results are expressed on the same scale used to fund health care, they could be used to build the case for paying for social connection programmes, from peer groups on campus to community activities, in the same way as other health services.

Who is affected: Students and young workers, especially those who have moved away from home or live alone; women in their late twenties to mid-forties, for whom isolation showed the strongest link; and health planners, universities and employers deciding where to invest in wellbeing.

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