People in former Soviet bloc countries are the loneliest in Europe, according to a new international study.

Researchers believe the economic upheaval since the collapse of communism, which has seen millions of people free to move abroad, has caused family relations to crack and put friendships under strain.

The research by Durham and Brunel universities shows that the nations with the highest levels of loneliness are found in Eastern Europe, including Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania.

While loneliness increases as people get older, it is a factor across all age-groups.

The comprehensive survey of 47,000 people, published in the journal Ageing and Society, across 25 European nations found for example that 34 per cent of people over 60 in Ukraine and 24 per cent of Russians over 60 felt lonely. The figure in the UK was seven per cent. Denmark and Norway’s rating was just three per cent.

It is the first time that Eastern European nations have been included in a comparative study on the prevalence of loneliness across all European adult age groups.

More research is being planned to pinpoint why the former communist countries experienced more loneliness, but the study authors suspect the transformations seen there can force people to move away from their family and friends in pursuit of a better life somewhere else.

Significant changes in a country’s political and economic stability can also put strains on existing relationships and make it more difficult to establish new trustworthy friendships.

Lead author Keming Yang, from Durham University’s school of applied social sciences, said: “Loneliness is widely seen as a problem of old age. Although feelings of loneliness do tend to increase as people get older, our analysis suggests that the country in which people live is a much bigger factor than age.

“We can see there is a clear pattern of groups of countries with high or low rates of loneliness. The groups have certain circumstances in common such as a recent history of social transformation or dramatic political changes, or at the other end of the scale, community cohesion and political stability.”

People were asked how often they have felt lonely in the past week, to which they could answer “none or almost none of the time”, “some of the time”, “most of the time”, “all or almost all of the time”, or “don’t know”.

The analysis also showed across the board that older people, and especially those aged 60 and over, feel lonely most often, while middle-aged people between 30 and 60 years old are the least lonely.

Co-author Christina Victor, professor, from the school of health sciences and social care at Brunel University, said: “We see very high rates of loneliness across all age groups amongst countries formerly under Soviet influence, and these reflect how peoples’ expectations of social engagement and the broader social context influence feelings of loneliness.

“The former Soviet bloc countries such as Ukraine illustrate how political and social instability and resultant social changes, including the loss of the social infrastructure, can be reflected in high rates of loneliness.”

Polish ex-pat Ania Lepkowska, who moved to to the UK in 2003, said: “Although Poland was not officially part of the USSR, when the Soviet Union collapsed it was initially a very exciting and liberating time with the abolition of censorship and introduction of freedom of speech.”

The financial worker who is a married mother of two working in Newcastle added: “Later though, when Poland joined the European Union, lots of people began emigrating for better-paid jobs or greater career opportunities. This social restructuring with families and friends no longer living in close proximity to each other may well have contributed to people feeling somewhat lonely.

“In Poland and other Eastern European countries, it was quite common for different generations to live together under one roof and I can see that, once people started leaving, that it would result in family units being broken up, with less multi-generation living. I am sure this will also have contributed to a higher percentage of elderly people feeling lonely.

The study found the five loneliest countries were 1 – Ukraine; 2 – Russia; 3 – Hungary; 4 – Poland and 5 – Slovakia.