The most friendless place on Earth

The article just puts poverty as a cause of loneliness. But I'm sure there are other factors which also add to it. Culture, shared rituals?

One of the reasons, mentioned in the article, seems to be family members moving away looking for employment.

The definition of loneliness used is - the painful mismatch between expectations of social connection and what happens in reality.

But I'm not sure if people in the survey are also including familial connections there? Would this change between societies of large families versus small?

I just feel that although poverty might be a major cause, there might be other reasons s well?

Tl;dr Madagascar