Can a Pet Help With Loneliness?

A pet can ease loneliness for many people, especially by giving the day a structure and creating easy contact with others. But it is not a guaranteed cure: a systematic review of the research found the evidence to be mixed.

How common is loneliness?

Very common. In 2025 the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Connection estimated that about 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by loneliness.

The WHO defines loneliness as "the painful feeling that arises from a gap between desired and actual social connections". Social isolation is different: it means an objective lack of enough social connections. The distinction matters here, because a pet might change how connected you feel, how many people you actually talk to, or both. The WHO links loneliness to more than 871,000 deaths a year, which is why researchers take seriously anything that might help, including the animals many of us already share our homes with.

What does the research say about pets and loneliness?

The honest answer is "it depends". A 2022 systematic review of 24 studies found that owning a pet was linked to lower social isolation in adults, while the link with loneliness was inconsistent.

The review, by Kretzler, König and Hajek, was published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. Its main findings:

• In adults, pet ownership was generally associated with lower social isolation.
• Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the studies showed no overall significant link between pet ownership and loneliness in adults.
• Studies carried out after the pandemic began mostly found that pet owners felt less lonely.
• In children and teenagers, the few studies done before the pandemic pointed to less loneliness among pet owners.
• Only some studies found a significant association at all, and in one study of teenagers during the pandemic, loneliness actually rose more among pet owners.
• Most studies found no difference between dogs, cats and other pets.

Almost all of this research is observational. It shows that pet owners and non-owners differ, not that the pet caused the difference. People who are already doing well may be more likely to take on an animal, and people who are struggling may lean harder on the pet they have.

Did pets help people through the COVID-19 lockdowns?

For many owners, yes. In a UK survey of 5,926 adults during the spring 2020 lockdown, most owners saw their animals as a source of considerable support, and owning an animal was associated with smaller increases in loneliness than not owning one.

The same study (Ratschen and colleagues, PLOS ONE, 2020) found something less comforting too: people whose mental health was poorer before lockdown reported a stronger bond with their animal. The authors suggest that a very close bond may be a sign of vulnerability in the owner, not only a sign that the pet is helping. Owners also reported practical worries about caring for their animals while lockdown rules were in place.

How do pets help people meet other people?

Pets, and dogs above all, work as social icebreakers. In a telephone survey of 2,692 adults in Perth, San Diego, Nashville and Portland, pet owners were significantly more likely than people without pets to get to know people in their neighbourhood.

Around 40% of the pet owners in that study (Wood and colleagues, PLOS ONE, 2015) said they had received at least one kind of social support from someone they first met through their pet. Dog owners stood out: they were far more likely than owners of other animals to get to know people this way. That makes sense. A dog needs walking, and walking a dog puts you on the same paths, at the same times, as the same neighbours, day after day. If you're curious about the physical side of that routine, read our post on whether dog owners really get more exercise.

Other everyday ways a pet can create contact:

• small talk at the vet, the pet shop or the dog park
• online groups for a particular breed or species
• neighbours who feed your cat when you travel, and whose cat you feed in return
• volunteering at an animal shelter, even if you can't keep an animal yourself

Is a dog better than a cat for loneliness?

Perhaps for social contact, but not clearly for the feeling of loneliness itself. In a German study of adults over 65 living without a partner, dog owners were less socially isolated than people without pets, while cat owners did not differ from non-owners.

In that study (Hajek and König, Aging & Mental Health, 2020), which used data from the German Ageing Survey, women with dogs were also less lonely than women without pets; among men there was no difference. It is an interesting signal, but it comes from a single snapshot in time, and the larger review found that most studies saw no difference between species. A cat's quiet company in the evening can matter a great deal to someone even if it never shows up on an isolation scale. If you're weighing up which animal would suit you, our guide Dog or cat: which pet fits your life? goes through the practical differences.

Can a pet replace human contact?

No, and the research doesn't suggest it should. The clearest benefits appear when a pet adds to someone's social life: it gets them outdoors, gives them reasons to talk to people and puts a rhythm into the day.

A pet offers things people sometimes can't: being needed, physical touch, a routine and company that never judges. Those things are real. But loneliness is about a gap in human connection, and a pet works best as a bridge to other people rather than a replacement for them. Researchers are also looking at other effects of pets on our bodies, for example whether pets can lower blood pressure, and there too the evidence is more nuanced than the headlines.

Should you get a pet if you feel lonely?

Only if you can care for it well for its whole life. A dog or cat is a commitment of a decade or more, with daily needs, costs and vet visits, and an animal taken on in a hard moment can add stress instead of easing it.

A few questions worth asking first:

1. Will my health, housing and budget let me care for an animal for many years?
2. Who would look after it if I were ill or away?
3. Could a smaller step help first, such as fostering, volunteering at a shelter or walking a neighbour's dog?

If loneliness is weighing heavily on you, or comes with low mood that doesn't lift, please talk to your doctor or a mental health professional as well. A pet can be wonderful company, but it is not a treatment on its own.