Living arrangements of older persons around the World

This survey provides an analysis of the patterns and trends in the living arrangements of older people and presents data for more than 130 countries. The publication analyses the demographic, social and economic correlates of living arrangements of people aged 60 years or over, focusing on co-residence with family members, solitary living and the institutionalisation of older persons.

The report:

• looks at the conceptual issues and evidence regarding living arrangements of older persons that helped motivate the study
• gives a descriptive analysis of the data, looking at patterns and trends of older people’s residential arrangements around the world, presenting levels of institutional living, solitary living, and household composition, focusing particularly on whether older persons are living with their children
• details how living arrangements vary according to age, gender and marital status, within the older population
• discusses living arrangements in the context of development - how living arrangements within countries are related to socio-economic characteristics, particularly education, urban/rural residence and material well-being
• uses special data from Latin American and Caribbean countries to examine several issues in greater depth, such as the number and characteristics of kin and the flow of informal support transfers between generations

The report's conclusions suggest that:

• living with a child or grandchild is the most common type of living arrangement among older persons in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa, while in Europe and the United States of America, the most common arrangement is the couple-only household, followed by individuals living alone.
• there is an increasing proportion of "skipped-generation" households, in which grandparents (often women) live with grandchildren in the absence of the middle generation, for the most part this is caused by the effects of HIV/AIDS
• older women’s living arrangements typically differ from those of older men. Older men are more likely than older women to live in couple-only households and with children, while in most countries, older women are relatively more likely to live alone, with a relative, or with an unrelated person
• for one socio-economic indicator - an index of economic well-being based on information about household amenities - the pattern according to living arrangements suggests that in developing countries older persons living alone are clearly disadvantaged relative to those living with someone else
• the results reported reinforce the idea that, in the poorest countries, older persons living alone tend to constitute an especially disadvantaged group - the poorest of the poor. As a country’s level of development rises, the proportion living alone tends to rise but, at the same time, the average degree of disadvantage associated with solitary living tends to fall. However, even in the advanced economies, the group of those living alone has been found to include a substantial subgroup living in poverty, and that subgroup is made up primarily of older women
• institutionalisation of older persons is more common in richer countries, and in most countries, the level of institutionalisation is higher for women than for men
• it is recognised that older people may be important providers as well as recipients of support, but also that individuals’ need for support is likely to increase with advancing age

The authors conclude that living arrangements of older persons are part and parcel of the challenges that the ageing of populations are posing for Governments and families in the twenty-first century. Governmental policies need to include a combination of measures that promote self-reliance among older adults, provide services for those who are in need, and encourage continued involvement of family members in the care and well-being of the older generations [adpated frpm authors]