A Growing Epidemic of Loneliness Among US Military Veterans: National Trends, Psychiatric Burden, and Suicide Risk

Robert H. Pietrzak, PhD, MPH; Ian C. Fischer, PhD; Peter J. Na, MD, MPH

J Clin Psychiatry 2026;87(3):26br16494

Loneliness is prevalent and clinically significant among US military veterans. Nationally representative data from 2019–2020 indicate that 56.9% of US veterans endorsed at least moderate levels of loneliness, with nearly 1 in 5 (19.7%) experiencing frequent loneliness.¹Loneliness is independently associated with substantial health burden and heightened suicide risk,^1–5underscoring its importance as a transdiagnostic risk factor.

Given recent changes in the social context for veterans, including COVID-19 pandemic effects⁶and demographic shifts toward younger, female, and racially/ethnically diverse veterans,⁷groups at elevated risk for loneliness,¹updated data are needed to inform prevention, treatment, and policy initiatives aimed at reducing loneliness and its consequences.^2,8,9

This study used 2025–2026 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS) data to estimate loneliness prevalence and changes since 2019–2020 and examine the association of loneliness with psychiatric disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Methods

Data were analyzed from the 2025–2026 NHRVS, a nationally representative survey of 2,636 US veterans conducted December 16, 2025–January 12, 2026. Of the 2,636 veterans surveyed, 24 (0.9%) had missing data on the loneliness measure and were excluded from analyses, yielding an effective analytic sample of 2,612. The sample was drawn from KnowledgePanel, a probability-based panel of >50,000 US households.¹⁰Poststratification weights were applied in inferential analyses to enable generalizability to the US veteran population.¹¹All participants provided electronic informed consent; the study was approved by the VA Connecticut Healthcare System Human Subjects Committee.

Loneliness was assessed using a 3-item measure,¹²which evaluates the degree to which respondents feel left out, isolated, and lacking in companionship (response options: 1=hardly ever to 3=often). Consistent with prior NHRVS studies,¹loneliness levels were categorized as “hardly ever lonely” (score of 1 on all items), “moderate loneliness” (score of 2 on at least 1 item), or “frequent loneliness” (score of 3 on at least 1 item) to facilitate comparison and clinical interpretability. Other measures are described in the Table 1 footnote.

Prevalence estimates of loneliness were calculated and compared between survey waves (2019–2020 vs 2025–2026) using 2-proportion z-tests. Bivariate analyses compared study variables by loneliness level. Multivariable regression models examined independent associations between loneliness levels and mental health measures.

Results

A total of 58.7% (95% CI =56.4%–61.0%; n= 1,467) of veterans reported moderate (36.3%, 95% CI =34.1%–38.6%; n= 961) or frequent (22.4%, 95% CI =20.4%–24.6%; n= 506) loneliness.

Compared with 2019–2020 estimates (37.2% moderate; 19.7% frequent), the prevalence of frequent loneliness increased significantly (z=2.65, P=.008), whereas the prevalence of moderate loneliness did not differ (z=0.74, P=.46).

Compared with hardly ever lonely veterans, moderately lonely veterans had significantly greater odds of 5 of 8 mental health measures: depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, hazardous alcohol use, and past-year suicidal ideation, with odds ratios ranging from 1.6 to 3.3; drug use disorder, lifetime suicide attempt, and future suicidal intent did not differ significantly. Compared with hardly ever lonely veterans, frequently lonely veterans had significantly greater odds of 6 of 8 measures, with the exceptions being drug use disorder and lifetime suicide attempt; odds ratios ranged from 2.0 to 32.1. Finally, relative to moderately lonely veterans, frequently lonely veterans had significantly greater odds of all measures except hazardous alcohol use, with particularly pronounced associations with depression (OR=9.7) and future suicidal intent (OR =15.9; Table 1).

Discussion

Loneliness remains highly prevalent among US veterans, with nearly 6 in 10 reporting at least moderate loneliness and more than 1 in 5 reporting frequent loneliness. The prevalence of frequent loneliness increased from 19.7% in 2019–2020¹to 22.4% in 2025–2026, representing an estimated additional 460,000 affected veterans based on population benchmarks.¹¹This increase may partly reflect enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic⁶; shifts in the demographic composition of the veteran population toward younger, female, and more racially and ethnically diverse groups^1,7,13; broader societal and economic stressors; and potential period or reporting effects that may influence willingness to endorse loneliness and emotional distress.14–16

A clear dose-response association was observed between loneliness and mental health measures, with higher loneliness levels associated with greater odds of psychiatric disorders and suicidality. For example, the prevalence of suicidal ideation increased systematically as a function of loneliness levels (3.8% vs 14.8% vs 32.3%), even after adjusting for sociodemographic, military, trauma, and health factors.

Although limited by reliance on self-report measures, a cross-sectional design that precludes directional inference, and the possibility that adjustment for psychiatric conditions may have attenuated associations with suicide-related outcomes, these findings suggest that loneliness represents a potentially modifiable intervention target for screening, prevention, and intervention efforts (eg, peer support initiatives, social prescribing, and group-based and community engagement interventions),^17–20with implications for VA clinical practice and population-level policy initiatives.

Article Information

Published Online: August 5, 2026. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.26br16494
© 2026 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.
J Clin Psychiatry 2026;87(3):26br16494
Submitted: April 27, 2026; accepted June 4, 2026.
To Cite: Pietrzak RH, Fischer IC, Na PJ. A growing epidemic of loneliness among US military veterans: national trends, psychiatric burden, and suicide risk. J Clin Psychiatry 2026;87(3):26br16494.
Author Affiliations: US Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut (Pietrzak, Fischer); Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut (Pietrzak, Fischer, Na); Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut (Pietrzak); VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut (Na).
Corresponding Author: Robert H. Pietrzak, PhD, MPH, US Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 950 Campbell Avenue, West Haven, CT 06516 ([email protected]).
Financial Disclosure: None.
Funding/Support: None.

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