Loneliness is an issue that can feel even more extreme at Christmas - Julian Pearce

Annually, millions are spent on designing, producing and deploying these adverts, but perhaps there is a more pressing issue that needs to be addressed. While most adverts feature festive families, reunions, get-togethers, gatherings and full tables, complete with all the trimmings, the reality for many will be about as far removed from the scenes depicted on screen than you could imagine.

Loneliness is an issue that can feel even more extreme at Christmas, especially when the perception is that others all have friends and family around them. It is tempting to think, particularly among those who don’t feel lonely, that this is a problem that exists in pockets. Something that only societal sub-groups or a handful of people feel, as a result of circumstance.

But the inconvenient truth is that loneliness can be found in every walk of life, every ethnicity, in every class and at any age and the statistics are there to back this up.

In research recently published by Age UK, 3.4m over 65s (a quarter of that age group nationally) won’t be putting up Christmas decorations and 1.4m will be eating Christmas dinner alone.

At the other end of the age spectrum, loneliness figures for young people are even more stark. In 2019 research by YouGov found that 88 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds in Britain felt loneliness ‘to some degree’. Within that statistic, 24 per cent said they felt lonely ‘often’ and 7 per cent ‘all of the time’.

In fact, the YouGov results showed a sliding scale of loneliness, indicating that we actually become less lonely as we get older. But the point is that loneliness can affect anyone, in almost any situation, at almost any stage of life, circumstance and background.

Overall in the UK, some nine million people say they feel lonely some or most of the time, according to the British Red Cross. And it is clear that the pressures that are faced at Christmas exacerbate the problem, with 17 per cent of people feeling more lonely at this time of year.

There is evidence that loneliness is at pandemic levels in the UK, but there still seems to be little understanding of it. There have been some brilliant campaigns, not least the one led by this newspaper to raise awareness of the issue, but surely more needs to be done, and surely now, at Christmas, is the time to do it.

But a social anxiety exists around loneliness, verging on the subject seeming taboo. Understanding more about the topic is the key to helping combat it, which is so vital when it can be so crippling and is already more widespread than most realise or admit.

There are many charities that can provide help and guidance. Part of the issue is that loneliness can manifest itself in different ways, be felt differently by individuals, and sometimes be misunderstood as a symptom of another issue. So while advice does exist, it is not always easy to find.

There are some brilliant organisations here in Yorkshire that recognise the scale of the issue and the impacts it can have on so many sections of society. Barca is one such charity, whose work in providing social connection spans a range of its services, from supporting youth work to addiction recovery. Combatting loneliness in these situations - and others - can provide demonstrably better outcomes.

However, it’s important to point out that there’s no one easy ‘solution’ to loneliness, which is why awareness is such an important factor.

In 2017, the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness was published, barely a year after the West Yorkshire MP’s tragic death. One of the key recommendations, implemented by then Prime Minister Theresa May, was to appoint a Minister for Loneliness.

National leadership on the matter is crucial. While the current Government has many pressing matters to attend to, loneliness is arguably one that will have as great an impact on a large section of society as any. As recently as March this year an alliance of MPs – a so-called All Party Parliamentary Group – dedicated themselves to the issue. However, the most recent records from November 2024 show that the group has not been re-registered and may be defunct.

Ensuring that this issue remains at the forefront of people’s minds is essential.

So if you just do a little research – reach out to a neighbour, contact a relative you’ve not spoken to for a while, or check in on an old friend – maybe this Christmas could be the year we start to make inroads into the wider problem of loneliness that we can take forward into 2025, together.

Julian Pearce is founder of communications agency Yasper.