Fifth of people in Derry/Strabane report feeling lonely ‘some of the time’ – second highest proportion in the North
A fifth of people in Derry and Strabane have reported feeling lonely at least some of the time, it’s emerged.
The Executive Office’s Individual Wellbeing report for 2024/25 shows 20.1 per cent of people aged 16 or over in Derry and Strabane reported loneliness.
This was the second highest in the North after Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (21.5 per cent).
Yet a breakdown of the figures reveals a more nuanced picture.
Derry & Strabane, for example, posted the highest proportion of people who said they ‘hardly ever’ felt lonely (40.5 per cent) but also the lowest proportion who said they ‘never’ felt lonely (23.6 per cent).
Four point eight per cent of people locally reported ‘often’ feeling lonely – the fifth highest in the North; 15.3 per cent said they felt lonely ‘some of the time’, the third highest after Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (15.8 per cent) and Mid Ulster (15.7 per cent); and 15.8 per cent said they felt lonely ‘occasionally’, the third lowest in the North after Causeway Coast and Glens (15.2 per cent) and Mid and East Antrim (15.4 per cent).
Across the North as a whole 17.9 per cent of people reported feeling lonely ‘at least some of the time’.
The report uses data from the 2024/25 Continuous Household Survey (CHS).
In 2023/24 and 2024/25, the CHS was based on a systematic random sample of 8,940 addresses.
In 2024/25 the overall response rate was 46 per cent (4,584 individuals). This is lower than the response rate in the previous year (50 per cent in 2023/24) and compared to pre-pandemic levels (55 per cent in 2019/20).