ABSTRACT
Across the world but particularly in Scandinavian countries more and more households have been occupied by only one person. While some sociologists have documented and lamented the detrimental effects of this trend, other sociologists like Eric Klinenberg would celebrate it as a social progress. Drawing on survey data, this chapter shows that living alone is almost universally associated with a higher probability of feeling lonely, regardless of the frequency of loneliness and the national context. Therefore, we should be worried about living alone as a potential risk factor for loneliness and cautious of celebrating solo living as an indicator of higher quality of life. Living alone has the greatest impact on frequent loneliness in Poland, Hungary, and Portugal. In Switzerland, living alone has the smallest impact on frequently feeling lonely. In most other northern European countries, plus Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK, living alone increases the chance of feeling lonely frequently only to a small degree. The prevalence of one-person households and the effect of living alone on frequent loneliness appear to be inversely correlated, which could be explained exactly because living alone is not common in a country that it makes people lonely. The meanings of aloneness, loneliness, and solitude are clearly distinguished. Living with others does make people happier; in northern European countries, the percentages of happy people among those living are the highest, while the lowest are seen in eastern and southern European countries.
