All By Myself: The Economics of Loneliness.

Research shows loneliness costs the Australian economy $2.7
billion per year or $1565 per person.


The World Health Organisation has also declared loneliness to be
a global health concern. And it’s estimated loneliness has an
equivalent health impact on the body to smoking 15 cigarettes a
day.


Before the pandemic older Australians were found to be the
loneliest in the nation. But now the data now shows this has
shifted and younger Australians are the feeling the effects of
being alone and isolated.


Technology has allowed us to be more connected than before, but
has all this left us lonelier than ever?


Guests:


Andrew Dempster, Principal Director & Leader of the National
Mental Health Advisory Business, KPMG


Roger Wilkins, Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Institute of
Applied Economic and Social Research, and Co-Director of the
HILDA Survey


Liesel Sharabi, from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
at Arizona State University.


Lixia Qu, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of
Family Studies.