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>I also think income inequality might lead to more loneliness.

I'd say poverty just amplifies the feeling of loneliness. Japan has the same problem of loneliness [0] and they have a pretty good Gini coefficient compared to the rest of the OECD.[1]

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/asia/japan-lonely-d...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...

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A thought: good standards of living and equality may result in loneliness through everyone's relative comfort and needlessness of help. Companionship is achieved through mutual struggle.

I would say it is the opposite. Impoverished people have more need to interact with people in their immediate community in order to survive and for tribal knowledge. They also are more likely to stay within the same geographic location and less likely to be able to afford vacations away from their home (so they just chill at their neighborhood and welcome people over in their free time).

Educated, upper middle class people pay others to take care of things, buys everything online and searches the internet for information. They are more likely to move to a new city (so local relationships have less value since they may move in the future) and have expensive vacations or hobbies outside of the local neighborhood.

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