Two days before Christmas, Camille* found the emergency services with a stretcher in front of her building. They took away the body of his sixty-year-old neighbor, found dead alone in her apartment.
“We were worried, we had seen big flies on the stairs, we asked the neighbors and the caretaker about him but no one knew anything. She was a very discreet divorcee”says the 40-year-old Parisian.
In 2024, more than 30 elderly people were found dead in their homes, weeks or even years after their death, according to a count carried out by the Little Brothers of the Poor, on the occasion of World Loneliness Day on Thursday.
Morlaix, Carpentras, Beauvais, La Ciotat, Albertville, Dijon, Angers… the association counted these solitary deaths based on news items reported in regional newspapers.
A countdown “undervalued”according to the association, which calls on public authorities to create a “solitary death observatory”to identify cases and better measure extreme loneliness.
The number of elderly people who die alone, without loved ones by their side, is “much higher”assures Boris Callen, general delegate of Monalisa, the National Mobilization against the Isolation of the Elderly, a network of 550 associations supported by the public authorities. “There are elderly people who die in such absolute solitude that no one asks for their bodies”.
In general, it is the neighbors who report to the mayor or the police: leaflets piling up in the mailbox, shutters that have not moved for a long time alert them, or worse a smell, or even larvae.
In France, 530,000 elderly people are in a state of “social death”according to Les Petits Frères des Pauvres. They have little or no interaction with the five social networks: family, friends, the world of work, associations and the neighborhood.
Some 13% of EU residents feel alone most of the time, survey finds “Loneliness in Europe” ordered by the European Commission, in 2022.
“Suicidal thoughts”
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a Commission on Social Connection in 2023. The United Kingdom in 2017 and Japan in 2021 created “Ministries of Solitude”.
The dislocation of families, the geographical distance of children who will settle far from their parents, the decline in religious affiliations, and individualism contribute to this isolation. And in old age, a spouse or friends may have died, leaving survivors isolated.

Some 13% of EU residents feel alone most of the time, survey finds / LOIC VENANCE / AFP/Archives
Living in the Jura, Liliane, 75, no longer sees her two daughters, now in their fifties and living in the Paris region, whom she raised alone. “The hospital asks me to designate a trusted person. Who to choose? »she explains.
“I don’t see anyone except medical staff. Solitude is pain, you are faced with yourself, the walls do not respond to you. I sometimes feel like committing suicide.”she confides.
Ordinary interactions with strangers seem more complicated than before: “Today, the norm seems to be not to speak to others so as not to disturb them. People are afraid to approach others, they fear a rebuff or entering into a potentially conflicting discussion. To smile at a stranger is to take the risk of being considered a simpleton.”notes Alexandre Jost, general delegate of the Spinoza Factory.
The associations are calling for a “mobilization of all” to once again develop “neighborhood solidarity”very strong in the past.
Cities organize awareness campaigns by providing information on warning signs and advising people to contact town hall or associations, according to Monalisa.
This network has 900 teams linking professionals – caregivers, social workers – and volunteers or young people in Senior Civic Solidarity Service to look after isolated people.
“A home nurse spots a lonely person, but does not have time to stay: she relays with trained volunteers, who visit and listen to the lonely person. If necessary, they can make the link with the doctor or social services”explains Mr. Callen.
“An unkept garden, a light constantly on, an overflowing mailbox: you have to worry and allow yourself to knock on the door”says Yves Lasnier, general delegate of the Petits Frères des Pauvres, who created a kit “loneliness hunter” available on the internet.
* first name changed