Demographic Ageing and Living Arrangements of the Elderly

Judit Monostori , Hungarian Demographic Research Institute

In consequence of demographic ageing and the fact that older people have been increasingly likely to live longer and alone, the living arrangements of elderly is becoming an important topic. It has great influence on living conditions, social networks, health and several other aspects of life, in addition on the social burden of demographic ageing. Elderly living in different family arrangements have diverse unsatisfied needs whereupon the nonresidential family members and the state have to react. The paper investigates the main characteristics of living arrangements and the factors which have influence on these in the European countries, especially in Hungary. The starting point of my research was Reher and Requena’s study (2018) which pointed out that per capita GDP, the TFR of older generation and the prevalence of extended households among the middle-aged generations are in very strong associatiation with characteristics of the elderly’s living arrangements. Only a few Eastern European countries - especially Hungary - deviate from the general pattern. In spite of the low per capita GDP, the relativelly high TFR, and the high proportion of households with two adult generations the ratio of one person households is the highest in Europe. The paper reveals that the big gender difference in life expectency, the increasing proportion of marriages disolved after two or more decades, the very low exit mobility from the one person households all in one contribute the high proportion of elderly living alone. Other specific feature in the regio is the very high ratio with two adult generations, which can be explaned by the needs of younger generations.

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 Presented in Session P2. Poster Session Ageing, Health and Mortality