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Living Arrangements
The proportion of elderly people living with their children in developed countries in western Europe and North America changed between the 1950's and 1980's. A five nation study found a dramatic decline in intergenerational co-residence. Sweden, which has always had the smallest proportion of elderly people living with their children, declined from a high co-residence of approximately 28% in the 1950's to 6% in the 1980's. The United States, France, and Britain also showed declines, with Britain experiencing a particularly sharp change (42% vs. 18%).
Co-residence is the standard throughout most of the rest of the world. In Asia, about three-quarters of the elderly are living with their adult offspring. Demographers report that in a number of East Asian countries, most notably Japan (a developed country) co-residence is declining. The proportion of elderly Japanese living with their adult children shifted from 77% in 1970 to approximately 65% in 1985.
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Graph: Percent Noninstitutional Elderly Living Alone, by Age
While the overall picture still shows that in developing countries the elderly reside with their families and
in developed countries the elderly reside on their own in the community, there are changes occurring which may alter these patterns.
Urban migration in many developing countries is depleting the number of young people living in rural areas. This has led, or is leading, to large increases in the number of elderly who must shift for themselves. In some areas of India, older people already have no children living with them to provide support. Due to economic pressures in urban areas, their children are not able to send money back home to the village to support their parents. Until recently, the practice of apartheid frequently separated elderly Blacks living in South African townships from their children. Urban dwelling Blacks, who had lived and worked in townships for their entire adult lives, were not allowed to remain in these townships after retirement and were forced to return to their village of origin. This separated them from their adult children who, for economic reasons, had to remain in the township.
Living arrangements appear to be related to gender. Very old widowed women are more likely than older men to reside alone.
This appears to be the case in both developed and developing nations due to the longer life span of women relative to men and to the tendency for women to marry men who are older than they are.
According to the five country SEARO study findings, in most of the developing countries, almost half of the male elderly reside with their spouses, around a quarter with spouse and children, another 23% with only their children and only 2 or 3% of elderly males live alone. This is not the case for elderly females. About 18% are living with their spouses and 5-6% or more are living alone. In developed countries the number and proportion of older women living alone is much greater. In the United States while only 16% of older men lived alone in 1987, 41% of older women did so. For women over the age of 75 in the U.S., approximately half are living alone. In Western Europe, the number is even higher. For example, in Great Britain approximately 80% of women aged 75 and older lived alone in 1985. Similarly in Japan while only 4.3% of elderly men live alone, about 11% of elderly women reside alone.
Institutionalization in nursing homes is low in most countries. In Japan the proportion of the elderly aged 65+ living in institutions is about 1.6%, in the U.S. it is about 5%, Germany 4%, Australia 6% and in Sweden 9%.
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