WHO — Social connection linked to improved health and reduced risk of early death

What the study found

The World Health Organization's Commission on Social Connection published a report on 30 June 2025 examining loneliness and social connection as public-health issues. It estimated that 1 in 6 people worldwide is affected by loneliness and linked loneliness to an estimated 100 deaths every hour — more than 871,000 deaths a year. The report also found that between 17% and 21% of people aged 13-29 feel lonely, with the highest rates among teenagers, and that loneliness was roughly twice as common in low-income countries (about 24%) as in high-income countries (about 11%). ^[1]

Why it matters here

The manosphere frequently invokes a "male loneliness epidemic" to explain young men's grievances. This WHO report establishes loneliness as a large-scale, measurable health concern rather than a fringe worry, tying it to hundreds of thousands of deaths a year and to elevated rates among young people. However, the headline figures it reports are not broken down by sex, so on their own they neither confirm nor refute the idea that loneliness falls hardest on men specifically; the report frames loneliness as affecting people across ages, incomes and regions. It is cited on is there a male loneliness epidemic? as baseline evidence on how widespread loneliness is and how it relates to health.