A fate worse than death, of course, would be to survive the ordeal but have to wait for help, naked and afraid. China has a growing population of people who live alone – one in five households in the country consist of a single person. All dark humour about going on your ear in the bathroom aside, there were 426,000 people living alone in Ireland at the time of the Census in 2022. The numbers living alone might have been even higher if not for the housing crisis. Living alone is a joy, 85 per cent of the time.

Source: The Irish Times January 22, 2026 09:00 UTC