Abstract- 20200201- 1

The Least Lonely People In The World

An EcoChi Vital Abstract

This article was published in the January 2020 issue of Monocle, p.36-39, written by Michael Booth.

The Scandinavians are a famously collectivist bunch, but the Danes’ social cohesion is off the scale. The super glue that binds them is an extraordinarily high membership of clubs, societies, voluntary associations and unions. According to one recent survey by Aalborg University, more than 90 per cent of Danes are members of something or other. Some say this tendency has something to do with climate or geography; others point to Denmark’s history, in which its vast empire was slowly eroded by military defeats and economic ruin, leading to an insular national character. These nesting tendencies are inherent in hygge, the much co-opted Danish concept of cosiness. “Denmark is a small country; we don’t really have any natural resources, so we’ve had to work together to negotiate and trade,” says social scientist Torben Bechmann Jensen from Copenhagen University. The upside might well be that this proclivity to join groups and clubs is the secret behind Denmark’s most valuable soft-power asset: happiness. Club membership has also helped make Danes among the least lonely people in the world. In a 2018 Eurobarometer survey, 79 per cent of Danes reported never or almost never being lonely and only 8 per cent of them socialized less than once a month. In contrast, one in five American and British adults reported feeling lonely or socially isolated; while two in five people in Japan are expected to live on their own by 2050. “After a dip in the cold water we’re smiling, even at the end of a bad day,” says Karen Sophie Lerhard, a board member of Charlottenlund Søbad winter-bathing club. “We dream of the ice; the colder the better.” Fellow board member Lise Bak agrees: “The slush is like a silk scarf on your body.” Winter bathing is just one of the club activities booming in Denmark. The health benefits of a cold dip are well documented, but the winter bathers stress the social aspect. “You feel part of something bigger here,” says new member Lotte Maersk. “It becomes part of your identity: ‘I am a winter bather.’” There are said to be more than 100,000 local and national societies and associations in Denmark, ranging from hobby or leisure-orientated groups with a handful of members to trade unions, which have a combined membership of about 1.25 million. The average Dane belongs to three such formal associations, more than any other European nationality. Psychologists have long cited membership of groups as important for well-being. A 2016 Nottingham Trent University study of 4,000 people in Italy and the UK found that for each club, team or group people joined, their happiness increased by 9 per cent, irrespective of age, gender, income, employment status or nationality. “In a sense it doesn’t matter so much what people do in the club – it doesn’t have to have a greater purpose,” says Jensen. “The most important thing is just to be doing something with other people.”