UCLA Loneliness Scale Score

UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3)

The UCLA Loneliness Scale is the reference self-report instrument for measuring subjective social loneliness, and its current Version 3 was published by Daniel W. Russell in 1996. It puts 20 statements in front of the respondent, all about feelings of isolation, social connection and a sense of belonging. You answer each one on a 4-point Likert scale where 1 means never and 4 means always. Eleven of the items are worded negatively and nine positively, and those nine positive ones get reverse-scored.

You get the total from sum(negative items) + sum(reversed positive items), which lands somewhere between 20 and 80 points. The higher the score, the more intense the loneliness, and most adult studies treat scores above 43–50 as the threshold where loneliness becomes worth flagging. The Brazilian validation by Lima et al. (2021) backed a three-factor structure with good reliability (alpha > 0.85).

Applications

Back in 2023 the U.S. Surgeon General called loneliness a public health epidemic, putting its toll on cardiovascular mortality on par with smoking 15 cigarettes a day. You'll find the scale in gerontology research, in public mental health work, in post-pandemic surveys, and whenever someone wants to measure how well an intervention helped older people, university students, immigrants or remote workers. Disclaimer: does not replace clinical evaluation.

FAQ

Loneliness or social isolation? They aren't the same thing. Social isolation is the objective lack of social contact, while loneliness is how it feels from the inside. You can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely.

Does a high score mean depression? No. The two are correlated, but they're separate constructs, and this scale doesn't diagnose mood disorders.

Can it be used with children? No. Version 3 was validated for adolescents and adults. Children have their own instruments, such as the Loneliness Scale for Children (LSC).