Nearly two-fifths (38 per cent) of benefits plan members are experiencing a general sense of loneliness, isolation and social disconnection, according to the 2024 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey.

This result increased significantly among those with self-reported poor mental health (76 per cent), those who had divorced or separated in the past year (74 per cent), those with poor work-life balance (66 per cent) and those with poor personal health (62 per cent). In addition, plan members who weren’t satisfied with their jobs (55 per cent) and who were aged 18 to 34 (45 per cent) were also more likely to have felt lonely or disconnected. 

Read: Is loneliness the next employee wellness frontier?

This year marks the first time the annual survey asked benefits plan members to describe their social health, workplace health, financial situation and their work-life balance. The data demonstrates how strongly social health is tied to stress, with more than half (54 per cent) of plan members who experienced feelings of loneliness in the past year also reporting high or extreme levels of daily stress over the past three months and 47 per cent of those reporting poor social health said the same. 

Roughly a third of plan members rated their financial situation (28 per cent) and their workplace health (33 per cent) as excellent or very good, while a higher percentage said the same about their social health (36 per cent) and work-life balance (36 per cent). 

Read: Remote working supporting employee productivity but not a one-size-fits-all solution: expert

Working remotely appears to have a positive impact on social health, with 43 per cent of those who worked from home at least one day per week describing their social health as excellent or very good, compared to 31 per cent of those who didn’t work remotely. Onsite workers were slightly more likely to describe their social health as poor — 18 per cent versus 14 per cent among those working remotely.

A fifth (21 per cent) of plan members said they’d like to improve or increase their social connections, a percentage that’s higher among members who arrived in Canada in the last five years (37 per cent), who rated their mental health as poor or very poor (33 per cent) and who are caring for parents or other family members (32 per cent).

Download the full 2024 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey report here. Tune in next week to read coverage of the panel discussions analyzing this year’s results.