The aim of this paper was to understand the quality of life of elderly placed in nursing homes. The concepts of quality of life and loneliness are explained, as well as their mutual connection. Likewise, a long-term care and nursing homes as part of it are elaborated in more detail. Furthermore, the results of the researches conducted in Croatia and selected countries of the world are represented and compared, on the basis of which several important findings were made. A total of ten dimensions of subjective quality of life in nursing homes were formulated for which the elderly have pointed out that they have important impact on their quality of life. The dimension of social contacts was given a specific attention which have been underestimated in the previous researches in relation to health and care. Besides that, positive correlation between the quality of life and the satisfaction with the services in the home has been confirmed. The lowest ranking evaluated aspects of the quality of life are financial independence and activities in nursing homes. On the other side, the highest ranking evaluated aspect of the services in the home was the satisfaction with the service of staff. There are numerous differences among the countries in aspect of social policy towards the elderly population and therefore it is likely that all of these dimensions and aspects will not be evaluated completely the same by the residents of nursing homes in other countries.