Living arrangements of the elderly in China

Recent increases in Chinese elderly living alone or only with a spouse has raised concerns about elderly support, especially in light of the population policy implemented since the late 1970s, and rural young people moving away from parents into cities in large numbers.

Using detailed information from where children live from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this paper offers an updated and broad picture of the living arrangements of the Chinese elderly and to look at how many elderly parents living alone actually have children living nearby. It also aims to shed some light on what determines the living arrangements of Chinese families with elderly parents, especially the proximity of children. Finally, it examine thes tradeoff between living arrangements and other forms of elderly support including the frequency of visits and financial transfers.

The papers concludes that:

• the increasing trend in living alone is accompanied with a rise in living close to each other. This type of living arrangement solves the conflicts between privacy/independence and family support -  children living close by visit their parents more frequently
• children who live far away provide a larger amount of net transfers to their parents, a result consistent with responsibility sharing among siblings
• having more children is associated with living with a child or having a child nearby, while investing more in a child’s schooling is associated with greater net transfers to parents