Head of Nextdoor Australia Jennie Sager says their organisation’s study on loneliness has revealed small acts of kindness and knowing just six neighbours produces benefits which can successfully reduce loneliness.

“More than half of Australians don’t actually know their neighbours and even before COVID we were in the middle of a loneliness crisis here in Australia,” Ms Sager told Sky News.

“One in four Australians say they felt severely lonely three times a week and that was before COVID happened, so you can only imagine how much that has increased during COVID.”

Ms Sager said the study took a control group of Nextdoor users and had them perform simple acts of kindness to study what impact it had on social isolation and loneliness.

“That’s when they found that these small acts of kindness actually directly reduce feelings of loneliness … and that knowing just six neighbours gets those benefits of reducing loneliness,” she said.