Loneliness: A matter of opinion or location?

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Published Date 1/25/2024

What makes a given place lonely? If you’re the kind of person who moves to an area and gets involved quickly, you’ll probably rarely be lonely. Tight bonds with new people can often happen fairly quickly. For others, not so much. In terms of locale, however, a yearly report is offered by various chambers of commerce about which cities are lonelier than others.

The verdict? Realtor.com's Clare Trapasso reports that if you want to avoid feeling lonely, don’t move to Washington, DC.

“For the second year in a row, the nation’s capital was named the loneliest city in America,” she says. How is a lonely city judged? Even though living alone does not always indicate loneliness, for this study it was about just that. Nearly half of the households in DC city are made up of just one person, according to the report.

“You have congressional aides and those working in the federal government [who] may be spending their time working in DC during the week and then spending their weekends going back home,” the report notes.

Chambers of Commerce analyzed more than 170 cities with at least 150,000 residents using U.S. Census Bureau data to figure out where people were living alone. If you’re a man, the loneliest city is St. Louis, and if you’re a female, Alexandria, VA—about 8 miles south of Washington, DC—took the prize.

“In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are living alone,” says Trapasso. “Across the country, more than 37 million people live by themselves, representing nearly a third, or 29%, of all households (including families, extended families, couples, and roommates), according to the report.”

This is a concerning phenomenon for many mental health professionals, however, because there are health risks associated with being solo — linked to poor mental health associated with depression and anxiety,” he adds.

Wondering about the rest of this top ten list? Following Washington, DC is Birmingham, AL, St. Louis, Atlanta, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Alexandria, VA, Minneapolis, and Richmond, VA.

Seems western U.S. cities either weren’t considered in this study or perhaps they just didn’t tweak the loneliness scale high enough.

Realtor, TBWS

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