With its bustling restaurants and packed pubs, one might assume that Londoners’ social lives are as busy as their Tube journeys.

However, a new survey has found that the UK capital is the nation’s loneliest city, with four in ten admitting to feeling isolated.

Dating app FindingTheOne, which focuses on real-life encounters, surveyed 2,000 single people to find out which British cities address feelings of desolation the most.

While the Big Smoke took the top spot, Birmingham and Manchester followed closely behind.

When asked if they considered themselves lonely, 42% of participants in London said yes, compared to 38% in Birmingham and 36% in Manchester.

The survey also found that younger generations struggle the most with loneliness, with 60% of 18-24-year-olds reporting feelings of isolation, compared to 39% of 35-44-year-olds.

The survey attributed the levels of disconnection to increased rates of people working from home.

Sylvia Linzalone, dating expert at FindingTheOne, also noted that the pandemic is one of the reasons why so many single people are finding themselves feeling isolated.

While London, Birmingham and Manchester took the top three places as the loneliest cities in the UK, Liverpool followed with 33% of individuals saying they suffer from feelings of loneliness.

Leeds followed with 31%, followed by Glasgow with 30% and Cardiff with 28%.

Bristol was on 26 per cent, followed by Belfast on 23 per cent – coming in ahead of Leicester on 21 per cent.

Expert Sylvia discussed the findings, saying, “More people are working from home, reducing opportunities for in-person connections.

“A generation of office workers who once met with colleagues face-to-face now communicate virtually, and the result is a growing sense of isolation.”

She explained that the repercussions of the pandemic have also led to a new change in the way Britons socialise.

“The lockdown and social distancing measures introduced during the pandemic have led many people to get used to staying at home and avoiding social interaction,” she added.

“For some, the habit has remained and even though restrictions have been lifted, people have continued to avoid in-person interactions, leading to an increase in loneliness.

The survey found that younger generations struggle more with feelings of loneliness (photo: stock image)

“In fact, 22% of people surveyed said they feel less comfortable with face-to-face meetings compared to before the pandemic.”

The survey highlighted the importance of face-to-face meetings for creating real connections.

“As humans, we’re wired for face-to-face interaction,” Sylvia added.

“However, many people lose confidence in their ability to connect offline.

She concluded: “Our research shows that fostering real, in-person relationships is key to tackling loneliness in our cities.”

It comes after new analysis found that unmarried people are up to 80% more likely to have depressive symptoms than married people.

Researchers have found that saying ‘Yes’ appears to have a protective effect against depression, which affects around 16% of UK adults.

The risk of depression also appeared to be higher in men and those who had a higher level of education.

Dating expert Sylvia Linzalone has chalked up the loneliness rate to an increased number of people working from home (picture: stock image)

And the findings may help identify groups at higher risk of mental illness, experts say.

Researchers from Macau Polytechnic University analyzed data collected from questionnaires from more than 100,000 people in seven countries – the US, UK, Mexico, Ireland, South Korea, China and Indonesia.

Over a follow-up period of up to 18 years, they found that being single was linked to a 79% higher risk of depressive symptoms compared to those who were married.

Divorced or separated people had a 99% higher risk of depressive symptoms, while widowed people had a 64% higher risk.

Unmarried participants from Western countries – including Britain – had a higher risk of depression than their counterparts from Eastern countries, they found.

The scientists suggest that the lower rates of depressive symptoms among married couples could be due to better social support, better financial status and couples having a positive influence on each other’s well-being.

Writing in the journal Nature Human Behavior, they said: “Depression is a significant public health challenge worldwide, and marital status has been recognized as a potential risk factor.

“Our analysis showed that unmarried people had a higher risk of depressive symptoms than their married counterparts in all countries.

“This increased vulnerability has occurred particularly among single, highly educated men in Western nations.”

They said that in some countries, drinking and smoking worsened depressive symptoms in people who were single, widowed or divorced.

Despite the findings, experts have previously described the idea of ​​marital bliss as “largely a myth” with “almost no evidence” that tying the knot leads to a better life.

Scientists reviewed dozens of studies last year to examine differences in suicide, loneliness, physical health and happiness between married and unmarried people.

They found that people who stay single usually have “very similar results” to those who say “I do.”

Psychologist Dr Bella DePaulo, who led the previous study, said: ‘People who get married are thought to become happier and healthier than they were when they were single.

“In fact, this belief is so widespread and so rarely challenged that it is more than a belief – it is more like a mythology or an ideology. And like many myths, this one is wrong.

“Studies that follow the same people over many years of their lives find almost no evidence that people who marry become happier or healthier than they were before; there is even some evidence that people become slightly less healthy after they get married.

She warned that single people can be stereotyped as “miserable, alone and lonely, selfish and self-absorbed and wanting nothing more than to get hitched”.