Mapping loneliness across the UK

Changing UK: The report in full [1.57 MB ]
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The two maps below chart the rise of loneliness, or anomie, which has taken place across the UK over several decades.

By 2001 the high level of social fragmentation experienced in places such as London in the 1970s had become the new norm.

While London ranked highest on the anomie index in the 1970s and 1980s, the most recent figures put Edinburgh top.

Use the links below to find out the detailed results for each BBC local radio region.

*The remit of the Changing UK report was to collate data by BBC local radio areas. Scotland and Wales are not broken down in this way. So, for the purposes of the report, areas were created to mimic local radio stations to cover the major cities of Scotland and Wales.

Academics from Sheffield University used the formula below to estimate a value for each area.