It seems the UK is becoming a nation of loners. In 2004 there were 7m people living alone in Britain – nearly four times as many as in 1961. By 2021, 37% of all households in Britain are expected to be made up of people who live alone.

But these figures reflect more than just an ageing population – today, more than 10% of people aged between 22 and 44 live by themselves, compared with 2% in 1973.

Dying alone

There are no national statistics for parish funerals. Under the Public Health Act, when a person with no means or family to arrange a funeral dies in the community, councils have a duty to pick up the bill. If the person dies in hospital, the funeral is dealt with by the local NHS trust. In recent inquiries, the Local Government Association could only get information from four borough councils, and The Sunday Times Magazine contacted the local NHS trusts of these boroughs. All figures run per financial year, and often include numbers of foetal remains and stillborn babies – adults who died alone are grouped with lives that never began. Spreading these figures across the UK’s 492 boroughs, we can estimate that thousands of deaths go unmourned by family or friends.

We are watching you...

It ought to be hard to disappear from view. The UK has 4.2m CCTV cameras — approximately one camera for every 14 people. If you live in London, you are captured on CCTV an average of 300 times a day. Without our being aware, our everyday activities leave a trail. According to the Information Commissioner’s Office, mobile phones, bank, internet and credit-card transactions, car satellite-navigation systems, electronic travel passes such as Oyster cards, store loyalty cards and medical records can all be used to trace someone’s whereabouts.

The charity Missing People estimates that 210,000 people in the UK are reported missing every year. Two-thirds of these are under 18, and the majority are found or return home safely within 14 days. Missing People is currently working on 150 unidentified cases – most of which concern corpses or body parts.

Only a few are categorised as ‘alive unidentified’. If nobody steps forward to identify them, they will remain indefinitely at a mortuary or will be cremated, or buried in an unmarked grave.

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