Table 1.

Prevalence of loneliness, perceived isolation and objective social isolation in different groups

	n	Loneliness (%)	p value	Perceived social isolation (%)	p value	Objective social isolation (%)	p value
Total sample	3075	83.4		59.1		28.9
Gender			0.26		< 0.01		< 0.01
Male	1502	84.4		55.8		31.4
Female	1570	82.4		62.1		26.7
Diverse	3	100.0		100.0		0.0
Age group			0.06		< 0.001		< 0.001
18–29 years	628	86.5		73.9		18.0
30–39 years	597	83.1		62.3		24.8
40–49 years	597	84.8		56.6		31.5
50–59 years	659	81.2		53.4		34.4
60 years and older	594	81.5		48.8		36.0
Children in own household			0.70		0.41		< 0.001
No	2206	83.5		59.5		32.0
Yes	869	83.0		57.9		21.3
Marital status			< 0.001		< 0.001		< 0.001
Single		90.4		69.4		34.3
Divorced		90.8		61.9		42.7
Widowed		87.5		47.5		35.0
Married, not living together with spouse	1313	84.6		67.7		20.8
Married, living together with spouse	1762	78.7		53.5		24.8
Education			0.46		0.46		< 0.001
Upper secondary school	1326	82.7		58.4		21.9
Qualification for applied upper secondary school	328	83.5		58.2		25.0
Polytechnic Secondary School	168	79.8		55.4		35.1
Intermediate Secondary School	888	84.1		59.9		33.8
Lower Secondary School	347	85.6		61.1		44.4
Currently in school training/education	9	100.0		88.9		0.0
Without school-leaving qualification	9	77.8		66.7		55.6
Migration background			< 0.001		< 0.001		0.67
No	2724	82.5		57.6		28.8
Yes	351	90.0		70.4		29.9
Employment status			0.03		< 0.001		< 0.001
Full-time employed	1458	82.0		53.8		23.9
Retired	499	82.2		54.3		42.3
Other	1118	85.7		68.1		29.5
Vaccinated against COVID-19			0.06		< 0.01		0.01
No	593	86.0		63.9		33.2
Yes	2482	82.8		57.9		27.9
Chronic diseases			0.08		< 0.01		< 0.001
Absence of at least one chronic disease	1765	82.4		56.5		24.0
Presence of at least one chronic disease	1310	84.7		62.5		35.6

Chi² tests were conducted (p-values). Individuals were classified as ‘lonely’ when their score was greater than 1. Analogously, individuals were classified as ‘socially isolated (perceived)’ when their score was greater than 1. Additionally, individuals were classified as ‘socially isolated (objective)’ when their score was below 12