Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
Louise Thomas
Editor
It’s many people’s worst nightmare: dying alone. Or, to use the Bridget Jones quote, alone and “found three weeks later half-eaten by Alsatians”.
But the tragic phenomenon of people dying at home by themselves – and being so socially isolated that their passing goes unnoticed for days, weeks, months or even years – is far from a flippant punchline. It’s increasingly becoming a reality across certain countries.
There are the devastating, standout cases that grab our attention, like that of Joyce Vincent. A young woman aged just 38, she was found in a London bedsit in 2006, more than two years after she died; it shocked the nation and inspired Carol Morley’s tender and affecting film Dreams of a Life. And then there are the more commonplace, everyday cases. They don’t make headlines or have movies made about them, but they are deeply distressing all the same.
Such cases abound in Japan, where an epidemic of so-called “lonely deaths” has been steadily growing, recognised to the point that it even has its own word: kodokushi. Almost 22,000 citizens died alone and unnoticed in the first three months of 2024, according to new figures released by police, with the total expected to reach 68,000 by the end of the year. This number equates to around 4 per cent of Japan’s 1.59 million total annual deaths.
It’s partly the result of an ageing population – 80 per cent of those eventually discovered were 65 years old or over – coupled with the fact that an increasing number of people are spending their twilight years living alone. Between 2015 and 2020, solo households rose by 13.3 per cent to account for 38 per cent of all households in Japan; more than 7.38 million people over 65 fit into this demographic.
“The probability of solitary death is certain to increase in society from now on,” said health minister Keizo Takemi. “It is important that we tackle the issue head-on.”
And Japan is not alone in this predicament. Around 4.2 million people in the UK over the age of 65 – around 7.5 per cent of the total population – live alone, according to Age UK. Perhaps even more telling is the fact that more than a million older people say they are lonely, and that they can go over a month at a time without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member.
“Loneliness sucks the joy out of life for far too many of us as we age,” says Caroline Abrahams, Age UK’s charity director. “It can undermine resilience to the stresses and strains of life and leave us feeling disconnected and left behind.”
Chronic loneliness – a term applying to those who answer “often or always” to the question “How often do you feel lonely?” on Office for National Statistics (ONS) surveys – has seen a post-pandemic upsurge. According to analysis from the Campaign to End Loneliness, the number of people experiencing it has jumped from 6 to 7.1 per cent of the population between 2020 and 2023, meaning that an extra half a million people in the UK feel chronically lonely compared to the first year of Covid restrictions.
Loneliness isn’t just bad for our mental health – it’s linked to poorer physical outcomes too. Research shows that loneliness is associated with elevated blood pressure and acute stress responses, is associated with bad sleep, and can even increase the risk of early mortality by 26 per cent, says the Campaign to End Loneliness. The very fact of being lonely, then, might increase the chance of a “lonely death”.
This social isolation plus an increase in older people living alone has seen the UK experience its own disturbing growth in kodokushi, suggests a 2023 study looking at deaths in England and Wales.
Loneliness sucks the joy out of life for far too many of us as we age— Caroline Abrahams, Age UK
Analysing data from the ONS, the team, headed up by Dr Lucinda Hiam of the University of Oxford and pathologist Dr Theodore Estrin-Serlui identified a worrying trend. Deaths where bodies were found in a state of decomposition – meaning they hadn’t been found for roughly a week or more – have steadily been on the increase since 1979.
There is no formal way to record a decomposed body in the UK, so the study developed an algorithm linked to deaths recorded as “unascertained” or “undefined”, which is generally used in cases where cause of death couldn’t be established because the body was effectively rotting.
Even this provides just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lonely deaths, argues Dr Estrin-Serlui, only highlighting cases at the severe end of the spectrum. “Plenty of people live in social isolation, but get ill enough to go to hospital before they die or are found less than a week later [when the cause of death can still be established]. Our study won’t count those figures.”
Even with the more conservative estimates of his research though, the number of people dying alone who aren’t discovered for a week or more has leapt up “significantly” in the past 50 years – from 0.1-0.2 per 100,000 in the late 1970s to four per 100,000 in 2022. The most rapid rise was in the mid-Nineties to the mid-Noughties, but the rate has continued to climb steadily since then. According to Dr Estrin-Serlui’s latest findings, last year the total number of official “lonely deaths” hit around 8,000-9,000.
It’s a problem that affects men over 60 at a much higher rate than women the same age – seven per 100,000 people for the former compared to 2.5 for the latter – and those living in cities more than those in suburban areas. One piece of research put instances of lonely deaths in central London at double the frequency of those in Hertfordshire.
Theories abound as to why these types of deaths have gone up, from the extended impact of pandemic lockdowns to the digitisation of society replacing the small daily human interactions we used to take for granted. Changing family structures, the breakdown of formal and informal social networks and increased divorce rates have also been namechecked; it’s likely a combination of multiple factors.
And the issue is only anticipated to get worse. As our population continues to age, we’re predicted to head towards a similar demographic make-up of countries like Japan and South Korea in the next couple of decades, where those aged 50 and over account for more than half the population. “Nothing from our data suggests this problem is going away,” says Dr Estrin-Serlui. “As our demographics and fertility rate changes over time to become more like those of Japan, based on our data and trends I predict we will probably expect more kodokushi of our own in the coming decades.”
Despite facing a similar future to Japan, the UK has yet to acknowledge it in the same way. Awareness of the issue there has led to the launch of social patrols and specific initiatives by housing authorities. For example, in the Japanese neighbourhood of Tokiwadaira in the Tokyo commuter belt, the residents’ association set up a hotline for those worried about their neighbours to alert the authorities, reports The Guardian. The apartment complex also started a “zero solitary death” campaign 10 years ago.
If someone is forgotten about in death it means these people were likely to have been forgotten about and neglected in life— Dr Theo Estrin-Serlui
The experts argue that we, too, must face up to this loneliness crisis; Age UK is calling for widespread change at a national level. “The government needs to make preventing and tackling loneliness a policy priority, backed up with the funding required to help older people to avoid loneliness or reconnect for those who are already experiencing it,” says Abrahams. “At Age UK we are calling on the next government to take a lead with a refreshed national loneliness strategy, delivered by a dedicated minister and supported by a cross-governmental team.”
On a more local and personal level, the charity highlights that we can all “do our bit”, looking out for older friends, neighbours and relatives, having a friendly chat with an older person on the bus or in a shop, offering to help an older neighbour or calling relatives regularly, “which can do more good than most of us would ever guess”. She stresses that, if you do have immediate fears for someone’s safety, you should contact the police.
But although horror-filled headlines are dominated by the people who remain undiscovered for a disturbingly long time – the Joyce Vincents of this world – the real tragedy of lonely deaths is the implication of lonely lives.
“I want to advocate and speak for the dead, for their dignity,” says Dr Estrin-Serlui. “People dying unnoticed is scary and sad in itself – no one wants to die alone – but if someone is forgotten about in death it means these people were likely to have been forgotten about and neglected in life as well. It’s the thin end of the wedge of a big problem affecting society: increasing social isolation for people of every age.”
