Associations of Family Policy and Income Inequality with Loneliness in Midlife: Cross-National Evidence from the United States and Europe

Loneliness is a global public health issue. Empirical evidence documents that today’s middle-aged adults in the U.S., England, and Mediterranean Europe report elevated levels of loneliness compared to previous generations and middle-aged adults in Continental and Nordic Europe. We examine whether nation-level policy factors pertaining to family benefits and income inequality are associated with cross-national differences in midlife loneliness across the U.S. and Europe. Applying multilevel models to harmonized longitudinal panel survey data from the U.S. and 13 European nations (N = 59,030, ages 45 to 65) revealed that middle-aged adults in nations with less investment in family benefits (as % of Gross Domestic Product) and more income inequality (assessed using the GINI coefficient) report higher levels of individual-level loneliness and exhibit steeper within-person increase in loneliness over time. Findings from our observational study document that nation-level policy factors pertaining to family benefits and income inequalities are associated with cross-national differences in midlife loneliness.