Lonely at the top: what the research actually says about leaders and loneliness
Are leaders lonelier than their teams? What WHO, Gallup and peer-reviewed studies show about loneliness at the top, and what they don't.
Short answer
- large surveys suggest that leaders report loneliness more often than the people they lead. In Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026, 31% of leaders said they had felt lonely during a lot of the previous day, 10 points more than individual contributors.
- Smaller studies are more mixed.
- They suggest the main difference is not how much loneliness leaders feel, but where it comes from.
"Lonely at the top" sounds like a phrase from a business book. People who run companies tend to smile at it and then change the subject. So here is what the data says, with the sample sizes and the limits, so you can judge it for yourself.
What is loneliness, exactly?
Loneliness is the painful feeling that comes from a gap between the social connections you want and the ones you actually have. That is the World Health Organization's definition. WHO separates it from social isolation, which is the objective lack of enough connections.
The difference matters for leaders. A CEO can spend the whole day in meetings and still be lonely, because the conversations they need don't happen in those meetings. They are surrounded by people, but there are few people they can talk to about what is really on their mind.
A leader can be surrounded by people all day and still be lonely, because loneliness is about the conversations you need, not the number of people around you.
How big is loneliness overall?
The WHO Commission on Social Connection published its global report on 30 June 2025. Two numbers from it:
- 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by loneliness.
- Loneliness is linked to more than 871,000 deaths a year, roughly 100 every hour.
Europe has its own measurement. In the EU Loneliness Survey 2022, run by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, 13% of respondents said they had felt lonely most or all of the time in the past four weeks, and 35% at least some of the time. Austria was among the four countries with the lowest levels, all below 10%. Ireland was the highest, above 20%.
So Vienna is, statistically, not a lonely place. That is worth keeping in mind before we talk about the people who run companies here.
Are leaders lonelier than employees?
This is where the research gets interesting, because two good sources point in slightly different directions.
| Feeling (a lot of the previous day) | Leaders | Difference vs individual contributors |
|---|---|---|
| Loneliness | 31% | +10 points |
| Stress | 46% | +7 points |
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026. Gallup's page does not define "leaders" precisely.
Gallup also notes that leaders report higher overall wellbeing and engagement than individual contributors. Leaders are more engaged and more lonely at the same time. That combination is easy to recognise if you have run a team: you care about the work, and you can't talk to anyone in the building about the parts that worry you most.
That is a small sample in one company, so it can't overturn Gallup's global numbers. But it adds something useful: friendly colleagues and a good team atmosphere don't necessarily protect a manager from loneliness. Whatever creates loneliness at the top seems to sit somewhere else.
Research suggests that a good team atmosphere protects employees from loneliness, but not necessarily the person who leads them.
Why would the role itself create loneliness?
The studies above measure how often. They are less clear on why. A few explanations come up again and again in the leadership literature. They are hypotheses, not settled facts:
Information asymmetry. A leader knows things they can't share yet: a restructuring, a difficult investor, a doubt about a co-founder. Every conversation has a filter.
People want something. Teams want direction, investors want numbers, partners want a deal. Few conversations are free of an agenda.
No equals nearby. The people who would understand the problem (other founders, other owners) are often competitors, clients or simply busy.
The spotlight. In a 2012 Harvard Business Review essay, Thomas J. Saporito, then chairman and CEO of the leadership consultancy RHR International, argued that CEO loneliness deserves to be taken seriously rather than treated as a cliché.
None of this is a diagnosis. It describes how the job is built. You can be well and still notice that some kinds of conversations have quietly disappeared from your week.
Does loneliness affect health and thinking?
For a leader, the plausible link is this: someone who is constantly scanning for threat and has nobody to check their reading with may make some decisions in a more defensive way. That is an inference from the research, not something the studies measured in CEOs.
Loneliness is linked to heightened vigilance for social threat. For a leader, that is not a mood. It is a filter on every decision.
What the research does not tell us
To be honest about the limits:
What we know
- Loneliness is common (1 in 6 worldwide, WHO 2025)
- Leaders report more loneliness than individual contributors in Gallup's 2025 data
- The causes may differ for managers and employees (Silard & Wright 2022)
- Social connection is linked to survival (Holt-Lunstad et al. 2010)
What we don't know
- How common it is specifically among owners and founders in Austria
- Whether that holds for every industry and company size
- Which formats actually reduce loneliness at the top over time
- Whether a specific evening, group or retreat changes anything for a given person
Most "lonely at the top" content online skips this table. It goes straight from a statistic to a product. We would rather leave the gap visible.
A question worth asking
There is no advice here, because the research doesn't support one-size advice. There is one question that the studies raise, and that seems fair to ask yourself:
When did you last talk about your work with someone who wanted nothing from you: no decision, no deal, no reassurance?
If the answer takes a while, that is information. What you do with it is yours.
Where Stilla Circle fits
Stilla Circle is preparing small evenings in Vienna for people who run companies or invest: up to twelve people, chosen one by one, phones in an envelope by the door by choice, no titles and no selling. The idea is to make room for the kind of conversation the research above suggests is missing; what happens at the table stays there.
FAQ
Are leaders lonelier than employees?
In Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 (data from 2025), 31% of leaders said they felt lonely during a lot of the previous day, 10 points more than individual contributors. A smaller 2022 study of 28 managers and 235 employees found no difference in average loneliness, but different causes.
What is leader loneliness?
Loneliness is the painful feeling of a gap between the connections you want and the ones you have (WHO definition). For leaders, the gap is often about the role: fewer people with whom they can speak openly about decisions, doubts and work.
Is loneliness just a feeling, or does it matter for health?
A 2010 meta-analysis of 148 studies with 308,849 participants found that people with stronger social relationships had a 50% higher likelihood of survival over an average follow-up of 7.5 years. WHO links loneliness to more than 871,000 deaths a year.
Does loneliness affect how leaders think?
A 2009 review by Cacioppo and Hawkley links perceived isolation to heightened vigilance for social threat and weaker executive functioning. The causal direction is not settled, so this is a plausible mechanism, not a proven effect on business decisions.
Is loneliness lower in Austria?
In the EU Loneliness Survey 2022, 13% of EU respondents felt lonely most or all of the time in the past four weeks. Austria was among the four countries with the lowest levels, all below 10%. The survey did not look at leaders separately.
Sources
- World Health Organization (30 June 2025). Social connection linked to improved health and reduced risk of early death — WHO Commission on Social Connection. https://www.who.int/news/item/30-06-2025-social-connection-linked-to-improved-heath-and-reduced-risk-of-early-death (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLOS Medicine, 7(7). https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316 (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Gallup (2026). State of the Global Workplace: 2026. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Silard, A., & Wright, S. (2022). Distinctly lonely: how loneliness at work varies by status in organizations. Management Research Review, 45(7), 913–928. https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/mrrpps/mrr-05-2021-0379.html (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2009). Perceived Social Isolation and Cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(10), 447–454. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2752489/ (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre. Loneliness prevalence in the EU (EU Loneliness Survey 2022). https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/scientific-activities/survey-methods-and-analysis-centre/loneliness/loneliness-prevalence-eu_en (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Saporito, T. J. (15 Feb 2012). It's Time to Acknowledge CEO Loneliness. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2012/02/its-time-to-acknowledge-ceo-lo (accessed 16 Oct 2026)