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As part of the annual SILC, respondents who are aged 16 years and over are asked how often they felt ‘downhearted or depressed’ or ‘lonely’ in the four weeks prior to their interview date. The responses are given on a 5-point scale, with answers ranging from ‘none of the time’ to ‘all of the time’.
Well-being - Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2024, published 25 March 2025, focused on life satisfaction and other well-being indicators.
As a result of only taking direct responses to the well-being indicator questions, the personal weights were adjusted. Well-being figures published on the Eurostat website may differ from results in this publication as there is no EU regulatory requirement to create separate weights for well-being indicators that are collected as part of the annual core SILC.
Further information on the SILC’s methodology is available in the Background Notes section.
The prevalence of feeling ‘lonely’ increases with declining self-perceived general health. For those who reported ‘very good’ general health in 2024, the prevalence of feeling ‘lonely all the time’ was 0.1%, whereas for those who reported having ‘bad or very bad’ general health, that percentage rose to 4.2%. See Figure 5.1, Table 5.1 and PxStat table WBB30.
For all categories of self-reported general health status, the prevalence of ‘feeling lonely at least some of the time’ has fallen if one compares 2022 rates with those of 2024. However, for those who reported having ‘good’ general health, the prevalence of ‘feeling lonely’ increased from 11.8% in 2023 to 14.1% in 2024. See Figure 5.2 and PxStat table WBB30.
In 2024, respondents who reported having a chronic illness were almost three times as likely to report feeling ‘downhearted or depressed at least some of the time’ in the four-week period prior to their interview than those who reported having no chronic illness (28.9% and 10.7% respectively). For both those who reported having a chronic illness and those who did not, the proportion reporting feeling ‘downhearted or depressed’ at least some of the time declined between 2022 and 2023, however the percentage of people reporting feeling 'downhearted or depressed' increased for both groups (with and without a chronic illness) in 2024. See Figure 5.3 and PxStat table SIH11.
For both those who reported suffering from a chronic illness and those who did not, there has been a slight increase in the proportion who said that they felt ‘lonely at least some of the time’ between 2023 and 2024 (from 10.2% to 10.5% amongst those who reported having no chronic illness and from 24.2% to 25.1% amongst those who did). See Figure 5.4 and PxStat table SIH11.
Whilst the trend between 2022 and 2023 for those who said they were ‘limited but not severely’ in usual activities because of a health problem (GALI) and for those ‘not limited’ had been downwards in terms of the proportion feeling ‘downhearted or depressed at least some of the time’, there was an increase in those proportions between 2023 and 2024. Amongst those who reported being ‘severely limited’ in usual activities because of a health problem, the proportion who reported being ‘downhearted or depressed at least some of the time’ increased to 57.5% in 2024 from 44.7% in 2023. See Figure 5.5 and PxStat table SIH12.
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