More than nine in every 10 people experienced loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research shows.
The study was carried out by the university’s Faculty for Social Wellbeing between April 29 and May 11.
In 2019, a similar study carried out over the phone found that 43.5 per cent of those aged 11 and over experienced some degree of loneliness.
This year’s data, collected through 906 online surveys, showed that 93.5 per cent of those aged 18 and above were moderately, severely or very severely lonely.
The study authors – professors Andrew Azzopardi and Marilyn Clark, and Jamie Bonnici – say the findings provide empirical evidence of the substantial increase in loneliness within the Maltese population during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of the participants, about four-fifths, were women, and the researchers acknowledged that because of this the results needed to be approached with a certain degree of caution. But they are confident that any gender disparity does not present a significant issue.
“Given that the original research was conducted with an equally representative sample, this provides support to the existence of loneliness which did not reveal any statistically significant differences between males and females,” they said.
Foreign residents felt lonely more often than the Maltese, the study also found.
While 13 per cent of Maltese participants said they often or always felt lonely, 22 per cent of foreigners felt this way.
More than a third of foreigners – 36 per cent – felt lonely sometimes, compared to 27 per cent of the Maltese respondents.
This could possibly be due to a more limited support system or limited access to friends and family, the authors note.
Non-Maltese residents made up 10 per cent of the participants and included British, Swedish, Danish and Italian nationals.
Overall, those aged between 18 and 24 reported the most frequent feelings of loneliness, with 62 per cent feeling lonely sometimes, often or always.
This age group was followed by people aged between 25 and 34, of whom 44 per cent reported that they feel lonely sometimes, often or always.
In comparing the new data with last year’s findings, the authors said that both moderate and severe feelings of loneliness had increased considerably within a year.
The highest increase when it comes to feelings of severe or very severe loneliness was registered in those aged between 20 and 24. While none within this age group had expressed this intensity of loneliness in 2019, more than two out of every five respondents felt this way in 2020.
This age group also registered a substantial increase – from 24 per cent in 2019 to 53 per cent in 2020 – among those who felt moderately lonely.