Data study
Europe’s loneliest cities
Where do people feel the most alone? We ranked all 83 cities in the European Commission’s 2023 quality of life survey by the share of residents who felt lonely all or most of the time.
The short answer
Diyarbakir, Türkiye, is the loneliest city in the survey: 25.7% of residents said they felt lonely all or most of the time in the past four weeks, more than double the median city (11.7%). Podgorica, Sofia, Antalya and Lille follow. The least lonely are Luxembourg and Strasbourg (4.5%), then Geneva, Antwerp and Liège.
Big cities are not automatically lonely: London (19.4%) and Paris (16.7%) sit well above the median, but so do smaller places such as Oviedo and Burgas, while Luxembourg, Geneva and Antwerp are among the least lonely.
All 83 cities
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| City | Country | Lonely all or most of the time, past 4 weeks | Lonely all or most of the time, past 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diyarbakir | Türkiye | 25.7% | 28.1% |
| Podgorica | Montenegro | 21.8% | 23.5% |
| Sofia | Bulgaria | 20.9% | 26.6% |
| Antalya | Türkiye | 20.6% | 21.6% |
| Lille | France | 20.5% | 23.5% |
| London | United Kingdom | 19.4% | 17.4% |
| Ankara | Türkiye | 19.1% | 20.8% |
| Istanbul | Türkiye | 18.7% | 23.0% |
| Oviedo | Spain | 18.5% | 18.0% |
| Belfast | United Kingdom | 18.5% | 18.4% |
| Vienna | Austria | 18.3% | 20.8% |
| Manchester | United Kingdom | 18.1% | 17.4% |
| Cardiff | United Kingdom | 17.5% | 18.0% |
| Naples | Italy | 17.1% | 16.2% |
| Amsterdam | Netherlands | 17.1% | 20.6% |
| Burgas | Bulgaria | 16.9% | 16.4% |
| Skopje | North Macedonia | 16.9% | 15.8% |
| Paris | France | 16.7% | 18.0% |
| Barcelona | Spain | 16.4% | 19.5% |
| Málaga | Spain | 16.1% | 22.7% |
| Bologna | Italy | 16.0% | 21.4% |
| Graz | Austria | 15.8% | 18.3% |
| Marseille | France | 15.6% | 18.3% |
| Ljubljana | Slovenia | 15.4% | 12.2% |
| Rennes | France | 15.2% | 11.1% |
| Turin | Italy | 15.2% | 14.7% |
| Piatra Neamţ | Romania | 15.2% | 10.7% |
| Bordeaux | France | 15.0% | 15.7% |
| Oslo | Norway | 15.0% | 16.1% |
| Aalborg | Denmark | 13.8% | 14.2% |
| Glasgow | United Kingdom | 13.7% | 13.2% |
| Białystok | Poland | 13.6% | 14.5% |
| Athens | Greece | 13.0% | 17.6% |
| Madrid | Spain | 12.9% | 13.9% |
| Reykjavík | Iceland | 12.8% | 13.1% |
| Miskolc | Hungary | 12.4% | 14.4% |
| Prague | Czechia | 12.2% | 15.3% |
| Rome | Italy | 12.2% | 11.6% |
| Gdańsk | Poland | 12.2% | 13.9% |
| Valletta | Malta | 12.0% | 12.4% |
| Munich | Germany | 11.8% | 10.0% |
| Warsaw | Poland | 11.7% | 14.0% |
| Krakow | Poland | 11.6% | 13.3% |
| Lisbon | Portugal | 11.6% | 11.2% |
| Tallinn | Estonia | 11.5% | 11.0% |
| Bucharest | Romania | 11.5% | 17.5% |
| Zagreb | Croatia | 11.4% | 10.8% |
| Leipzig | Germany | 11.4% | 9.9% |
| Rotterdam | Netherlands | 11.2% | 13.6% |
| Malmö | Sweden | 11.2% | 16.2% |
| Košice | Slovakia | 11.1% | 12.4% |
| Ostrava | Czechia | 10.9% | 12.6% |
| Stockholm | Sweden | 10.7% | 12.1% |
| Oulu | Finland | 10.6% | 14.0% |
| Dortmund | Germany | 10.4% | 12.1% |
| Bratislava | Slovakia | 10.4% | 7.0% |
| Newcastle (Tyneside) | United Kingdom | 10.2% | 13.3% |
| Tirana | Albania | 10.2% | 7.4% |
| Helsinki | Finland | 10.1% | 11.8% |
| Verona | Italy | 10.1% | 12.2% |
| Nicosia | Cyprus | 10.0% | 10.4% |
| Berlin | Germany | 10.0% | 15.0% |
| Essen | Germany | 10.0% | 13.1% |
| Groningen | Netherlands | 9.9% | 12.7% |
| Dublin | Ireland | 9.8% | 10.2% |
| Palermo | Italy | 9.7% | 8.5% |
| Braga | Portugal | 9.1% | 10.6% |
| Riga | Latvia | 9.0% | 11.5% |
| Belgrade | Serbia | 9.0% | 10.2% |
| Hamburg | Germany | 8.8% | 10.3% |
| Rostock | Germany | 8.8% | 12.7% |
| Vilnius | Lithuania | 8.8% | 9.8% |
| Budapest | Hungary | 8.6% | 8.1% |
| Copenhagen | Denmark | 8.5% | 8.6% |
| Heraklion | Greece | 8.5% | 12.9% |
| Cluj-Napoca | Romania | 8.4% | 10.4% |
| Brussels | Belgium | 8.1% | 9.2% |
| Zurich | Switzerland | 7.8% | 9.2% |
| Liège | Belgium | 7.5% | 9.8% |
| Antwerp | Belgium | 6.6% | 8.8% |
| Geneva | Switzerland | 5.6% | 8.3% |
| Strasbourg | France | 4.5% | 7.4% |
| Luxembourg | Luxembourg | 4.5% | 10.1% |
How we built this
The survey asked: “How much of the time, during the past 4 weeks, have you been feeling lonely?” and the same question for the past 12 months. We show the share answering “all of the time” or “most of the time”, leaving out people who did not know or did not answer. The chart uses the four-week question; the table also shows the twelve-month one.
Source: European Commission, Survey on the Quality of Life in European Cities 2023, run by Ipsos with about 850 residents in each of 83 cities in the EU, EFTA, the UK, the Western Balkans and Türkiye. We used the Commission’s aggregated city file (revised September 2024). Last checked October 15, 2026.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the loneliest city in Europe?
In the EU’s 2023 survey of 83 cities, Diyarbakir had the highest share of residents feeling lonely all or most of the time in the past four weeks (25.7%), followed by Podgorica and Sofia.
Which European city is the least lonely?
Luxembourg and Strasbourg had the lowest share (4.5%), followed by Geneva (5.6%).