Loneliness Reaches 4 in 10 Young People in Northern Chile
The Achs-UC thermometer found 26.5% loneliness in the north, the highest since 2020; among ages 18 to 29 it reaches 40.7%.
Four out of ten young people in northern Chile say they feel lonely: 40.7% of those between 18 and 29. That's what round 12 of the Achs-UC Mental Health Thermometer reports, as published by El Observatodo.
In the macro-zone that runs from Arica y Parinacota to Coquimbo, the general indicator of perceived loneliness reached 26.5%. That is nine points higher than in April 2025 (17.5%) and the highest reading since November 2020, when the study began measuring it. The national average is 21.9%; the central region sits at 17% and the south at 19.5%.
The thermometer doesn't ask whether someone lives with other people. Its loneliness scale (UCLA-R), one of the seven it applies alongside those for depression (PHQ-9) and insomnia (ISI), looks for something else: the underlying sense of having no one to turn to.
«A church that learns to ask and to listen without rushing offers something no chat can replace.»
For Daniela Campos, technical head of Psychosocial Risks at Achs, this perceived loneliness "has to do with the feeling of not having satisfying bonds or social relationships, even when surrounded by other people."
The measurement is longitudinal: 2,700 people in this round, a random sample representative of the urban population over 18, with interviews conducted in homes that had already been surveyed before.
Young people in the north, the hardest-hit group
The 26.5% figure covers the whole macro-zone. Between ages 18 and 29 the number rises to 40.7%, far above the same age group in the central region (13.1%) and in the south (25.7%). By gender, 32.1% of women report high levels of loneliness, compared with 20.5% of men; the increase among women is more than ten points over the previous measurement.
The thermometer's instruments cover general mental health, depression, anxiety, psychosocial risks, alcohol, insomnia and loneliness. There are no questions about screen time, rotating shifts or internal migration: those explanations fall outside this data.
Depression and insomnia are rising too
Of those surveyed, 19.1% show suspected or present mental health problems, up from 13.9% in the previous measurement: the highest level since August 2021. Moderate or severe symptoms of depression went from 15.7% to 17.7%, the highest reading for the north and above the national average (16.2%). Moderate or severe insomnia jumped from 8.1% to 14.9%.
David Bravo, who directs the survey center at the Universidad Católica, linked economic problems and lack of employment to the worst mental health indicators, and identified the north's depression as the highest rate in the country.
Stress has its own numbers: organized crime and drug trafficking remain the top source (64.8%), climate change rose to 60.9%, and 55.1% are anxious about getting sick without receiving care. For 54.1%, the worry is needing treatment and not being able to pay for it; for 27.7%, losing their job.
A table with no cover charge
Scripture doesn't treat loneliness as a character flaw. "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil" (Ecclesiastes 4:9, ESV), and the next verse pictures the fall: whoever falls without a second person nearby has no one to lift him up (see Ecclesiastes 4:10).
Paul writes to a church that must restore someone caught in a transgression, and right there he commands: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2, ESV). The charge is for the community of believers; it is not a formula that erases every kind of loneliness by itself.
It's worth saying: some young people look for that table and don't find it, and others feel alone inside their own church. A church that learns to ask and to listen without rushing offers something no chat can replace.
This week you can do something small: pick one person from your group, your work or your family, ask how they're really doing, put your phone away and listen to the whole answer. If sadness or insomnia are becoming your norm, talk to a trusted adult, a health professional or your pastor. In an emergency, go to the emergency services in your country; in Chile, the Ministry of Health offers mental health guidance through Salud Responde, and findahelpline.com gathers the lines available where you live.
