Australian men say they are lonelier than ever, with more than half meeting the criteria for loneliness and lacking companionship.

Men who experience loneliness are roughly twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts compared with those who do not.

More than half of men aged between 35 and 50 years old meet the criteria for loneliness, as ranked by the UCLA 3-Item Loneliness Scale.

The research was conducted by Mentoring Men, a free service that connects men with trained, local male mentors, which surveyed 2000 men living in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

It found more than 65 per cent of men would welcome a life mentor, but 42 per cent were unaware that mentoring services existed near them.

This showed the real barrier was not willingness but awareness, Mentoring Men chief executive Filipe

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