This indicator examines how frequently people have social interactions or social contact with others – through examining frequency of social connection, and depth and size of social networks. When contact is infrequent, or with only a limited number of people, a person may be experiencing social isolation. Social isolation is a common concern for people living in rural areas, particularly those living in remote areas or on rural properties located some distance from the nearest town. However, rural communities are also known for their strong social activities and connections. This means measuring social isolation can be important to better understand whether geographic isolation is in fact leading to social isolation.

Social isolation is related to, but different from, loneliness.  Loneliness is the feeling of lacking social connection to others. Importantly, loneliness can be experienced even by people who frequently spend time socialising with others – if they do not feel understood or connected to those people, they can experience loneliness despite being surrounded by people. This means it is possible to be lonely while not being socially isolated, and vice versa.

Multiple studies show that experiencing social isolation for an extended period of time is associated with poorer health and wellbeing. While both loneliness and social isolation are associated with poorer physical health, loneliness is a stronger predictor of psychological wellbeing (mental health and mental illness) than social isolation, while social isolation is a stronger predictor of life expectancy (Hong et al. 2023).

Hong, J.H., Nakamura, J.S., Berkman, L.F., Chen, F.S., Shiba, K., Chen, Y., Kim, E.S. and VanderWeele, T.J., 2023. Are loneliness and social isolation equal threats to health and well-being? An outcome-wide longitudinal approach. SSM-Population Health, 23, p.101459.

Advantages: Social isolation is an important factor affecting a person’s wellbeing, with very strong scientific evidence supporting its direct effect on wellbeing and life outcomes.

Disadvantages: There are few disadvantages to measuring social isolation. However, it is important to distinguish loneliness and social isolation in rural communities. Not all people experiencing social isolation will experience loneliness, and vice versa. It is also sometimes difficult to identify what is the best way of measure social isolation – which social networks should be included? What counts as a social interaction? How many social interactions are needed for a person to be considered socially connected versus socially isolated? For this reason, sometimes it is simpler to measure loneliness, which is simpler to interpret and understand.

Social isolation is typically measured by identifying characteristics of a person’s social network, including how frequently a person interacts with others, and the number and type of people in their social network (family, friends, aquaintances).

Few surveys regularly collect data on number and type of social contacts. The Regional Wellbeing Survey includes the following measures of social networks in its data tables, which provide data for regional areas across Australia. This data can be used to broadly identify how many people have lower versus higher levels of social contact with others. However, the measures ask a person to subjectively identify if they feel they are rarely to frequently in contact with others, which is not an objective measure of frequency of contact as what is ‘rarely’ for one person may feel like ‘frequently’ to another:

• How regularly the person sees family and friends face to face
• How regularly the person spends time attending community groups and activities