Older adults’ living arrangements in Europe

Liili Abuladze, Tallinn University

This study maps household structure and living arrangement trends over time in Europe, from the older adults’ perspective. This focus is important because coresiding with someone is a potential support resource for older people. Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Israel from the IPUMS-International harmonised census database are included in the analysis. The selection was based on the condition that integrated information from at least two census points per country as well as relevant household structure variables would be available. Additionally, data from the Estonian censuses (1989, 2000, 2011) will be added to the analysis to position Estonia’s household structure development over time in a comparative perspective. Preliminary descriptive results about four countries confirm ageing of the Austrian, Greek, Hungarian and Portuguese populations between 1970 and 2001. In terms of living arrangements, the proportions of 60-year-olds and older people living alone has gone up in these countries over the three decades. Similarly, there has been a decrease in the proportions of 60+ population living with extended family. Next analysis steps will describe the household structure and living arrangements of older people (60+) from older adults’ perspective. This will be done for all countries, distinguishing those living alone, living with a partner, with adult children (son or daughter), those living in multigenerational families and finally older people living in group quarters. Such information is helpful in determining kin availability for older adults.