Living alone
A one-person household. It is a fact about the home, not a measure of friendship or of feeling lonely.
Censuses and surveys record who shares a home. Someone who lives alone may see friends every day; someone in a full house may feel unseen. Loneliness on this atlas is the felt gap. Social isolation is a count of contact, and living alone is often one item in that count. Widowhood is a marital event that often leads to living alone. Living alone is the household.
Also called one-person household, solo living, lives alone.
Connected relationships
Meta-analysis · Moderate
Living alone→All-cause mortality
Higher living alone increases all-cause mortality.
Across pooled studies, living alone was linked to a higher risk of death: an odds ratio of 1.32 in one meta-analysis and a hazard ratio of 1.48 among people with cardiovascular disease.
Sources
- J Holt-Lunstad et al. (2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review.
- RM Long et al. (2022). Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Living Alone Associations With Mortality Risk in Individuals Living With Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression.