During the corona pandemic, the proportion of people in Bavaria who feel lonely has increased significantly. In 2017, 2.3 percent of people in Bavaria stated that they often or very often felt lonely, in 2021 their share was 16.2 percent. This emerges from the new loneliness report presented by Health Minister Klaus Holetschek and Social Affairs Minister Ulrike Scharf (both CSU) in Munich on Wednesday.
Transferred to the Bavarian population, it can be assumed that around 1.8 million adults in the state of Bavaria often or very often felt lonely during the pandemic. Almost twice as many women (21 percent) as men (11.3 percent) said they were often or very often lonely. The youngest age group surveyed, 18 to 25 year olds, had the highest loneliness rate at 31.7 percent in 2021. In 2017, only 1.5 percent of them said they were often or very often lonely.
The tendency towards loneliness in society that existed before Corona had increased, said Holetschek and at the same time pointed out the health consequences of loneliness. Chronic loneliness can lead to mental and physical illnesses such as anxiety disorders, depression, high blood pressure, strokes and dementia. “And – that’s also part of the truth: people who are lonely tend to have suicidal thoughts more often,” said Holetschek.
The loneliness report also points to numerous offers of help in Bavaria, such as the Ratschkasse in the Buxheim supermarket, the telephone angel campaign by the Retla association and the advice center for suicide prevention in Nuremberg. The website www.einsammliche.bayern.de gives an overview of the offers of help. Data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the German Aging Survey (DEAS) were evaluated for the report.
Overview of loneliness support and events Loneliness Report
