China’s Spring Festival masks a deeper social problem. Beneath the world’s largest annual migration lies a growing crisis of loneliness shaped by migration, inequality and institutional design.

As the Year of the Snake ends, more than nine billion passenger journeys will unfold during China’s Spring Festival travel period, the greatest annual human migration on Earth. For some, these are the only few weeks in the year when families are together.

For many, this is a period when they can find temporary relief  from loneliness – from the striving and adjusting, even if not yet assimilating, in the cities where they work, far from their hometowns. The lucky ones, who can make ends meet and are not weighed down by economic pressures, can enjoy a moment of community before returning to a burdensome reality.

According to Gallup research from 2023, the prevalence of loneliness in China (23 per cent) was comparable to South Korea (21 per cent) and India (25 per cent) but much higher than Japan (14 per cent). Building on Gallup’s data and referencing a World Health Organization analysis of 23 data sets, The Economist recently highlighted China as  an exceptionally lonely place.

In the international context, further research is needed to ascertain if China is distinctly lonely. However, there is little doubt that loneliness is an important social issue in China.

China’s  one-child policy has been singled out as a cause of this wave of loneliness, but that might not hold in........

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