Youth hugs the most – however they also worry the most for corona infection.

We miss hugging each other, especially as autumn approaches.

And some of us defy the advice of health authorities: Last week, three out of ten gave a hug to someone other than their partner, according to a survey by the Norwegian Corona monitor from Opinion.

1,400 Norwegians answered questions about whether they had given a hug to someone outside the house. The youngest are the ones who hug the most:

More than all 16-24-year-old (56%) report this, followed by 41% in the 25-30-year-old age group. In the youngest group, two out of three also say that they miss contact with other people the most.

The youngest are those who embrace each other the most and miss human contact. Half of the young people gave hugs last week, says senior advisor Nora Clausen in Opinion.

She emphasizes that this age group is far from irresponsible, despite the hugs.

“No one cares more about infecting others than the youngest, where seven out of ten care about this – and twice as much about infecting themselves,” says Clausen.

In total, Opinion asked 3,700 Norwegians whether they missed contact with others more. A majority of 54 per cent answered affirmatively, while 38 per cent did not miss it.

The proportion of those who have no contact with others is 16 percentage points higher now than in July, and 4 percentage points higher than in June. The senior advisor believes this is since we have less free time and therefore less social interaction.

“One obvious consequence of the pandemic and the measures is that we are not socializing as we used to. This is necessary from a health point of view, but it is not natural for us,” says Clausen, who may also reveal that there are major regional differences.

The people of Oslo embrace each other the most. More than one in three Oslo residents hugged someone outside the house last week. However, in Western Norway, it is where people hug the least.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today