All the Lonely (Middle-Aged) People, Where Do They All Come From?
Image above: Eleanor Rigby statue, Stanley Street, Liverpool. Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Aimed at integrating cutting-edge psychological science into the classroom, columns about teaching Current Directions in Psychological Science offer advice and how-to guidance about teaching a particular area of research or topic in psychological science that has been the focus of an article in the APS journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.
In 1966, Paul McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby” posed a question that continues to puzzle psychological scientists: “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” Nearly six decades later, Frank Infurna and colleagues (2025) suggest that loneliness and depression have become as American as apple pie.
Using sophisticated statistical analyses, Infurna and colleagues compared loneliness and depression levels among middle-aged adults across various high-income countries. Their analyses compared not only cross-cultural differences in loneliness and depression levels but also historical changes within each country. Their results were striking: Loneliness and depression levels were elevated among U.S. middle-aged adults, and these levels have increased over the past 100 years. Other countries did not show a similar increase in middle-aged people’s loneliness and depression levels.
Why are U.S. middle-aged adults uniquely at risk for increasingly high levels of loneliness and depression? The researchers argue that the lack of U.S. family policy programs (such as subsidized childcare and financially supported parental leave) is one possible culprit. For example, they note that middle-aged loneliness does not increase across generations in nations that invest in family policy programs (Infurna, Dey, et al., 2025).
To bring this cutting-edge research into the classroom, instructors can complete the following brief activity. It aims to promote critical thinking by asking students to consider whether certain cultures may predispose middle-aged adults to loneliness and depression, why this risk arises, and how to reduce it. The activity takes approximately 7 minutes to complete and can be conducted in virtual or face-to-face classroom settings. As an additional benefit, it also encourages students to build their skills using artificial intelligence tools to support their reasoning and application of psychological concepts.
Part 1
Imagine life as a middle-aged adult (aged 40 to 65) in one or two the following countries with which you’re most familiar:
- Austria
- Belgium
- China
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Italy
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- England
- United States
Now, consider how your life as a middle-aged adult would differ depending on which country you call home—and how your life may differ compared with prior generations. If you get stuck on any question, feel free to use your favorite large language model (for example, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude) for ideas. You don’t have to be an expert on every country. Just do your best to make an educated guess about life as a middle-aged adult across various countries.
First, think of your career. In which countries would you be encouraged to maximize your career success, establishing yourself as an independent adult? In which countries might you prioritize taking care of the older and younger generations in your family rather than achieving individual career success? Finally, in which countries will the typical family make the most money, and in which countries will the typical family make the least money? How have these tendencies strengthened or weakened over the past 100 years?
Second, consider your living arrangements. In which countries might you be encouraged to live apart from your parents, siblings, and extended family, perhaps for the rest of your life, as you build your life and career? In which countries might you expect that, as a middle-aged adult, your parents would live with you, your spouse, and your children? Over the past 100 years, how have these expectations related to your living arrangements strengthened or weakened?
Third, reflect on how your self-concept and social support levels may differ if you were a middle-aged adult living in each of these countries. If someone asked you to define yourself (“I am ____”), how might your response differ across cultures? In which countries might you report the highest levels of social support? Have these cross-cultural differences increased or decreased over the past 100 years?
Part 2
Now that you’ve reflected on life as a middle-aged adult in these countries, answer the following questions without using any artificial intelligence assistance:
- Of the countries listed in Part 1, which country has seen the greatest growth in loneliness among middle-aged adults?
- Of the countries listed in Part 1, which country has seen the greatest growth in rates of depression among middle-aged adults?
- Why might the countries you listed in the first two questions have such intense growth of loneliness and depression?
- What programs might you design to reduce such generational increases in loneliness and depression in these countries? How might you alter the programs to align with different cultural values and traditions?
Part 3
Instructors present Infurna and colleagues’ (2025) findings. Specifically, compared with middle-aged adults from other countries, U.S. middle-aged adults have elevated loneliness and depression levels. This pattern of U.S. middle-aged adults experiencing loneliness and depression has grown over time, with people born in the 1960s and 1970s being lonelier and more depressed compared with U.S. middle-aged adults born in the 1930s. Other countries do not show growth in loneliness and depression over time. Infurna and colleagues show that a lack of government family policy spending has contributed to such growth in loneliness and depression levels among middle-aged U.S. adults. What other strategies may reduce this growth in loneliness and depression, especially interventions that do not depend on government funding?
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Additional Reference
Infurna, F. J., Dey, N. E. Y., Aviles, T. G., Grimm, K. J., Lachman, M. E., & Gerstorf, D. (2025). Loneliness in midlife: Historical increases and elevated levels in the United States compared with Europe. American Psychologist, 80, 744–756.
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