Retirement and loneliness: Cause for concern?

CHE RESEARCH BITES

By Johannes S. Kunz, Trong-Anh Trinh, Michael Shields and colleagues

15 September, 2026

As governments raise retirement ages and a wave of Baby Boomers moves into retirement, a new study from Monash Business School’s Centre for Health Economics offers an answer to a question central to the loneliness “epidemic” debate: leaving work does not make older Australians lonelier.

The finding is timely. Denmark has just legislated a retirement age of 70, the highest in Europe, and other governments are considering similar increases, largely for fiscal reasons. Because keeping people in work for longer could reshape their social lives - for better or worse - it is important to understand the implications for loneliness before retirement ages are pushed higher.

Using two decades of data from the HILDA Survey, which has asked around 17,000 Australians each year whether they “often feel very lonely”, comparing those that were eligible to retire vs those that were not. The results show that retirement has no statistically significant effect on loneliness for either men or women. If anything, the estimates point towards a small reduction in loneliness, but none reach conventional levels of statistical significance. The same pattern emerges when tracking individuals from three years before to three years after retirement: there is no rise, no decline, and no evidence of changes in the lead-up to retirement. The findings are also consistent across marital status, education, health, income, and occupation, suggesting that most people adapt well to the transition regardless of their circumstances.

Overall, the study suggests that pension eligibility settings matter far less for loneliness than many might expect. Instead, sustained investment in community programs and support networks that keep older Australians socially engaged is likely to be more important. This broader focus aligns with Australia’s growing policy attention to ageing and social isolation.

Kunz JS, Trinh TA, Berk M, Earnest A, Engel L, Filia K, Le LK-D, Lim M, Skouteris H, Shields MA, Mihalopoulos C. The impact of retirement on loneliness: Evidence from Australia. Scientific Reports. 2026. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-64288-z

Find out more about the Disadvantage and Health Inequalities theme.

CHE Research Bites are short, easy-to-understand summaries of our recent academic papers highlighting new evidence and insights on topical issues in the health and healthcare sectors.

Interested in hearing the latest from the Centre for Health Economics? Sign up to our newsletter. Follow us on X and LinkedIn.