Annex B - Details on the production of the indirect composite loneliness score
Published 29 July 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-survey-202021-annexes/annex-b-details-on-the-production-of-the-indirect-composite-loneliness-score
1. Indirect Loneliness Composite Score
There is variation in how people understand the term “loneliness” and some people might be reluctant to admit to loneliness. To address this the Community Life Survey also asks three indirect questions about loneliness.
The three indirect questions asked respondents:
- How often do you feel that you lack companionship?
- How often do you feel left out?
- How often do you feel isolated from others?
The three indirect questions are used to create a loneliness score between three and nine, three being the least lonely and nine being the most.
Further information is available in Annex B. It allowed them to choose one of three responses for each question:
- ‘Often’,
- ‘Some of the time’
- and ‘Hardly ever or never’.
The three indirect questions are used to create a loneliness score between three and nine, three being the least lonely and nine being the most. This is done through assigning a score to each response (as below) and combining them:
- “Hardly ever or never” equals 1
- “Some of the time” equals 2
- “Often” equals 3.
There is no standard accepted score for which someone would definitely be considered lonely. To maximise the statistical analysis possible, this report categorises the scores from the indirect measure in the following way:
- A score of 3 or 4 can be categorised as representing people who feel lonely least often.
- A score of 5 or 6 or 7 can be categorised as representing people who feel lonely some of the time.
- A score of 8 or 9 can be categorised as representing people who feel lonely most often.
This was reported on in 2019/20 in its own separate report, the ‘Community Life Survey: Focus on Loneliness 2019/20’. More information on this measure can be found here