There is a strong link between the uptick in loneliness and the increasing number of people who have no children or choose or to live alone, apart from their adult children.

In an Institute for Family Studies (IFS) report, sociologist and author Rosemary Hopcroft notes that rates of loneliness are rising, affecting 40% of those age 45 and older (up 5% since 2018). In addition, she highlighted how the number of Americans living alone in their 80s and 90s will soon skyrocket, “from 6% of all households in 2018 to 12% in 2028.”

Data on younger generations indicate that the trend of solitary living is set to increase further as birth rates continue to plummet. IFS projections “show that as many as 30% of all women born in 1989 in the U.S. will likely remain childless.” As this childless cohort ages, studies show that they are more likely to report being lonely than those who have children. Hopcroft pointed to a study of Americans 50 and older showing that those “without living children reported a significantly higher level of loneliness compared to those with living children,” even when controlling for other loneliness-related factors.

https://ifstudies.org/blog/all-the-lonely-people-loneliness-is-exacerbated-by-childlessness-