Loneliness is reported by people across religious identities, but recent surveys show meaningful differences in both direct loneliness and the support networks surrounding it. In England, 7% of adults aged 16 and over said they felt lonely often or always during October 2023-March 2024, while U.S. surveys measure religious participation and community belonging through different questions and periods.
Contents
- How loneliness is measured in England
- Direct loneliness by religious identity
- Indirect loneliness and support networks
- The latest England comparisons
- Religious participation in the United States
- Spiritual communities and Jewish connectedness
How loneliness is measured in England
The Community Life Survey separates a direct question from an indirect composite measure. Direct loneliness asks whether someone feels lonely often or always. The indirect measure is a score based on several loneliness-related responses: a score of 8 or 9 is classified as high indirect loneliness, while a score of 3 or 4 is classified as low indirect loneliness.
That distinction matters when reading religious-community loneliness research statistics. A person may not describe themselves as lonely often or always, yet still report patterns associated with a high indirect-loneliness score. Conversely, a broad support network can coexist with occasional loneliness. The measures below should therefore be read as related indicators rather than interchangeable totals.
The official Community Life Survey 2023/24: Loneliness and support networks reports estimates for people aged 16 and over in England. Its main period was October 2023-March 2024, with a prior comparable period of 2021/22.
Direct loneliness by religious identity
Across England, 7% of adults said they felt lonely often or always in October 2023-March 2024. That represented approximately 3.1 million people. In the prior comparable survey period, 2021/22, the reported share was 6%. At the other end of the response scale, 20% of adults said they never felt lonely in October 2023-March 2024.
The religious-identity figures show a spread around the England-wide estimate:
| Religious identity or category | Felt lonely often or always | Survey period |
|---|---|---|
| Any other religion | 14% | October 2023-March 2024 |
| Muslim | 9% | October 2023-March 2024 |
| No religion | 8% | October 2023-March 2024 |
| Christian | 6% | October 2023-March 2024 |
| Hindu | 6% | October 2023-March 2024 |
The highest listed result was 14% among adults in the “any other religion” category. The figure was 9% among Muslim adults, 8% among adults reporting no religion, and 6% among both Christian and Hindu adults. These are descriptive differences between survey categories; they do not show that religious identity caused a particular loneliness outcome.
The overall estimate also provides scale. The 7% England figure and the approximately 3.1 million people estimate describe the same October 2023-March 2024 survey period, while the 6% result from 2021/22 is a comparison with an earlier period. The change between those published percentages should not be treated as a measure of the effect of religious participation, because the figures describe the population overall and the survey definitions and context remain important.
Indirect loneliness and support networks
The indirect measure gives a second view of community connection. In October 2023-March 2024, 10% of adults in England had a high indirect-loneliness score of 8 or 9. That was approximately 3.9 million people. In 2021/22, 8% had a high indirect-loneliness score. Meanwhile, 56% of adults had a low score of 3 or 4 in October 2023-March 2024.
The available religious-group results for high indirect loneliness were 18% for the “any other religion” category, 9% for Hindu adults, 8% for Christian adults, and 7% for Jewish adults. The categories and levels are not identical to the direct-loneliness table, so they should not be substituted for one another. The high-score classification means a score of 8 or 9 on the survey’s indirect-loneliness measure.
The same survey included questions about people who could provide practical or emotional support. Across adults in England, 94% agreed that people would be there for them if they needed help. Another 92% agreed that people they could call on would be available if they wanted company or to socialise. In addition, 95% had at least one person they could count on to listen when they needed to talk.
Religious-group support figures varied by question. Among Buddhist adults, 81% agreed that people would be there for them if they needed help. The corresponding result was 96% among Christian adults and 92% among Muslim adults. For the listening question, 87% of Buddhist adults had at least one person they could count on, compared with 97% of Christian adults and 88% of adults in the “any other religion” category.
These indicators describe access to support, not the same thing as attendance at a congregation or membership in a faith group. They also do not establish that a particular support network prevented loneliness. They show how respondents described their relationships during October 2023-March 2024.
The latest England comparisons
The Community and Engagement Survey 2025/26 - loneliness: report provides a later set of England estimates for October 2025-March 2026. In that period, 7% of people aged 16 and over reported feeling lonely often or always. The corresponding direct-loneliness results were 14% for people in the “any other religion” category, 9% for Muslim people, 7% for people reporting no religion, and 5% for Christian people.
The latest indirect-loneliness results also show different levels across categories. Overall, 9% of people aged 16 and over had a high indirect-loneliness score of 8 or 9. The result was 16% among people in the “any other religion” category, 11% among Muslim people, 11% among Buddhist people, 10% among people reporting no religion, and 7% among Christian people.
| England category | Direct loneliness often or always | High indirect-loneliness score | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any other religion | 14% | 16% | October 2025-March 2026 |
| Muslim | 9% | 11% | October 2025-March 2026 |
| No religion | 7% | 10% | October 2025-March 2026 |
| Christian | 5% | 7% | October 2025-March 2026 |
| England overall | 7% | 9% | October 2025-March 2026 |
This later survey is useful for current comparison, but it should be kept separate from the 2023/24 Community Life Survey results. For example, Christian direct loneliness was 6% in October 2023-March 2024 and 5% in October 2025-March 2026 in the supplied England estimates. Muslim direct loneliness was 9% in both periods, while the “any other religion” category was 14% in both. Those are reported percentages from different survey periods, not a causal trend analysis.
Religious participation in the United States
U.S. surveys often approach religious community through attendance and belonging rather than the England loneliness classifications. According to Pew Research Center’s Religious service attendance and belonging to religious, nonreligious organizations in the U.S., 33% of U.S. adults attended religious services in person at least once or twice a month in 2023-24. Another 18% attended a few times a year, while 49% seldom or never attended in person.
At least-monthly in-person attendance varied across selected religious groups. The reported figures were 76% for Latter-day Saint adults, 60% for evangelical Protestant adults, 46% for Muslim adults, 40% for Catholic adults, 23% for Jewish adults, and 17% for Buddhist adults. The same source reported that 40% of U.S. adults participated in religious services at least monthly when in-person, online, or television participation was included.
Attendance is a measure of participation frequency, not a direct measure of whether someone feels lonely. It can nevertheless describe one way people encounter a congregation or religious community. The figures also demonstrate why comparisons require care: the U.S. data count attendance modes and frequency, while the England figures above report loneliness responses and support-network indicators.
Spiritual communities and Jewish connectedness
Pew Research Center’s Americans’ spiritual practices measured community involvement in the United States in 2023. About 40% of U.S. adults said they were involved in a religious community such as a church or other religious congregation. The proportion was 54% among religiously affiliated adults and 7% among religiously unaffiliated adults.
Spiritual-community involvement was reported separately. Fourteen percent of U.S. adults said they belonged to a spiritual community. The result was 17% among religiously affiliated adults and 8% among religiously unaffiliated adults. A narrower measure asked whether respondents were involved with a spiritual community and considered that involvement extremely or very important: 11% of religiously affiliated adults and 3% of religiously unaffiliated adults met that description.
These figures distinguish religious-community involvement from spiritual-community belonging. Someone can be counted in one measure without being counted in the other, and neither measure is a loneliness rate. Their value for understanding community connection is that they show how many adults describe a structured or shared spiritual setting as part of their lives.
Jewish social connection was examined in Pew Research Center’s Jewish community and connectedness in the U.S., based on 2020 data. About 75% of U.S. Jewish adults said at least some of their close friends were Jewish. Thirty percent said all or most of their close friends were Jewish.
Taken together, the England and U.S. results point to several distinct questions: how often people feel lonely, whether they have someone to call on, how frequently they participate in religious services, whether they belong to a religious or spiritual community, and how much community identity appears in close friendships. The surveys provide quantified descriptions of those questions across stated periods and geographies; they do not by themselves establish that religious participation causes lower or higher loneliness.