India has been ranked the second loneliest country in the world in a global study released in June 2026 by digital platform JB.com, which examined emotional well-being and social isolation across 36 countries. Turkey topped the ranking with a loneliness score of 100, while India followed closely at 89. Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa rounded out the top five, with the United Kingdom, United States and Australia also featuring in the top ten.
In India, 58 per cent of respondents said they feel lonely and 34 per cent reported feeling isolated. The study also found that 37 per cent of Indians frequently experience sadness, the highest figure among the top five countries in the ranking. The loneliness score combined several factors, including self-reported loneliness and isolation, levels of sadness and happiness, depression rates, and household patterns such as average household size and the share of people living alone.
The most striking finding concerns household structure. Only 3.7 per cent of Indian households consist of a single person, and the average Indian household has more than four members. India is one of the least physically isolated societies in the study, yet it ranks second on loneliness. The report concludes that loneliness in India is driven by emotional disconnection rather than physical solitude, since people can feel unseen and unheard while living surrounded by family.
The pattern holds in unexpected ways elsewhere. South Africa recorded the highest loneliness rate among the top five at 65 per cent, yet only 18 per cent of its respondents reported feeling isolated, suggesting that loneliness and social connection do not always move together. South Korea entered the top five partly because 36.1 per cent of its households are single-person, the highest share in the study. Crowded homes and empty ones appear to produce the same emotional outcome through entirely different routes.
At the opposite end of the ranking, Uzbekistan and the Netherlands were identified as the least lonely countries, recording lower isolation levels and stronger happiness scores, alongside Canada and Thailand.
Source: JB.com Global Loneliness Study, Indian Express
