Almost 2 million adults facing Christmas alone

An estimated 1.8 million adults across the UK are expected to spend Christmas Day alone this year despite not wanting to, according to new research.

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The findings come from a Salvation Army survey commissioned to examine the scale of social isolation during the festive period. The church and charity says the research highlights concerns that some people are living - and in some cases dying-in isolation from meaningful human contact.

A survey of 4,384 UK adults found that nearly one in twelve respondents had, at some point, gone more than a month without a face-to-face conversation with another adult, excluding brief exchanges with strangers.