Societies differ in the level of importance placed on family-based co-residence.
In many societies, one’s living arrangement is a choice and a reflection of priorities. This includes the decision to live with family or not, which has traditionally been the most direct indications of family ties. This changing view of the importance of living with one’s family, as well as the changes in what the family’s role is, has contributed to the increase in people living alone.
Albert Esteve, Rocío Treviño, Pilar Zueras, Anna Turu (Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics, Barcelona) and David S. Reher (Universidad Complutense, Madrid) looked at global patterns and trends of those living alone based on sex and age. They focused on three different periods in life with a representative age group selected: Young adults (25-29), mature adults (50-54) and older adults (75-79). Since living alone is often connected to marital status, they compared the observed percentage of people living alone with standardised levels of living alone by marital status. They also analysed the relationship between living alone and levels of human development using the Human Development Index. This project used anonymised individual-level micro data from population censuses and surveys to compare the situation in 113 countries. The Integrated Public Use of Microdata Series-International (IPUMS-I) project provided the main archive of census micro data and other country-specific surveys and censuses, while the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) and the European Labor Force Surveys (EU-LFS) provided information not available in the IPUMS-I archive.
On the global level, living alone is relatively infrequent for most people, but this varies, especially among regions. For young adults, living alone is more common among men, mainly in developed countries. In Germany and Switzerland, almost one-third of the young population lives alone, but this is the exception as this is closer to five per cent in most countries. Older adults were often two or three times more likely to live alone than mature adults. There were more differences in the number of older adults living alone among the countries than among other age groups.
Based on sex, women in Europe and North America live alone more often at every age, with significant increases beginning around age 50. Women in other regions usually live with others until the age of 45 and then a substantial increase in living alone begins and continues until the end of life. Mature adult men live alone more often, but the overall differences among the countries are not as strong as they are among women.
Marital status was not found to play a significant role in the cross-national differences. The authors conclude this indicates that unpartnered individuals, i.e. those most likely to live alone, are likely to live in many different living arrangements. More developed countries also had higher levels of people living alone, with the correlation between living alone and development being the highest among older adults and stronger among women than men.
Living alone is related to levels of individualism and individual choice, which differ among the regions and are higher in more developed countries. This is evident in the differences between men and women living alone and overall lower levels of living alone. Esteve and colleagues argue that as women become more equal in society, these differences between men and women living alone will decline. The increase in living alone at older ages is also significant and should not be ignored, particularly in ageing societies. As the authors argue, the decision to live alone in higher ages have greater implications for society, but these vary among societies. Even if the rate of growth of older people living alone slows, the actual number will continue to rise substantially. This will be a challenge for families, societies and the government to make sure their needs are met.