In 2011, one of Stockholm’s limited medieval townhouses, named Hus 24, became the first property in the Nordics to be formally branded a co-living space. In larger cities, this includes a bubbling movement championing shared living. ![]() There is a slow-burning public debate about whether shifts in Swedish housing and socialising habits might help tackle the issue. The issue is also having an impact on discussions about integration Sweden frequently comes close to the bottom of global rankings when it comes to the ease of making new friends. One Nordic start-up, No Isolation, has been campaigning for the government to appoint a loneliness minister. Sweden’s largest daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter recently ran the headline ‘ Is loneliness among young people a new epidemic?’, while the Red Cross has increased resources for tackling loneliness among different age groups. Yet despite a lack of hard data on the issue, loneliness as a potential social and health problem for young Swedes is increasingly generating discussion. In fact, the latest European Social Survey, released in 2014, found that only 5% of Swedes experienced frequent loneliness, slightly lower than the European average of 7%. Meanwhile, other research suggests that the tendency to live alone in Sweden has not left it a lonelier nation than European neighbours. Fors Connolly says it is therefore “not clear that the present generation feels lonelier compared to previous generations”. Plus it could be that young Swedes are increasingly raising concerns about loneliness because they are more comfortable talking about their needs and feelings than previous generations. For example, young people may tend to report feeling lonelier than more mature single household dwellers regardless of their objective social situation because they are “more insecure in themselves” at that age. However, he warns that the bigger picture is more complex. Only Swedes in the over-75s category reported higher levels of loneliness (17.4%).ĭr Filip Fors Connolly, a sociologist at Umeå University in northern Sweden and co-author of the book chapter The Swedish Loneliness, argues that living alone is “definitely a factor” when it comes to perceived levels of emotional loneliness among young Swedes. There has not been a nationwide survey of loneliness since 2013, but that research for Statistics Sweden found that 16.8% of 16 to 24 year-olds said they had “felt alone during the last two weeks”. “It was like an emptiness.It became easy to start thinking bad things about myself, or destructive thoughts.” “I felt alone and did not have anyone close by,” she explains. “I still feel lonely sometimes, but it is a bit less now.”įor Ida Staberg, the novelty of being independent also wore off quickly, and mental health problems she’d experienced as a younger teenager started to resurface. He says he feels better since making a good group of friends at work and joining sport activities. “But it is more difficult to live by yourself than with friends and family.” “There is a lot of pressure on young people to be an adult and act like an adult,” he argues. He shared a house with friends during travels in Australia and says he found this less of a challenge. I just wanted to make time go faster and get through the day.” ![]() “I lost energy, and was feeling a bit more sad and not as excited in the morning or when the sun rose. “It tore on my mental health a bit and I felt more isolated than ever in my life,” he says. Christoffer Sandström, 26, who has lived alone since he was 21, has been vocal about his struggles after relocating to a rented flat in Stockholm from Sundsvall, a city around 380km north.
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