The number of children who say they feel lonely at school more than doubled between 2012 and 2018, and Britons aged 16-29 are more than twice as likely to report feeling often or always lonely as those aged over 70.

A report by the think tank Onward found that one in five Britons aged 18-24 have one or no close friends, a proportion that has tripled in the past decade.

Historically, people’s social networks have tended to shrink with age, but nowadays research shows that young people have fewer friends than older Britons.

The evidence from the UK and other Western countries suggests that Generation Z – those born after 1997 – isn’t just the loneliest cohort in the country, they may be the loneliest generation in human history.

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Sarah Dawood, senior associate editor speaks to writer Sophie McBain, who looked into the epidemic of loneliness amongst young people today for her New Statesman feature The lonely land.

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