There are increasingly more women aged over 65 years who are living alone. In the year 1981, barely 19% of elderly women lived in single-person households, that figure is today close to 30%. In these changes, fertility patterns have played a prime role. Independently of civil status, women without children have more probabilities of living alone at advanced ages than those who have children. For this reason, as we are living more years and having fewer children, in coming years the number of elderly women who live alone can only increase.

In the year 2011 in Spain, there were over 1.2 million elderly women living alone. In other words, three out of every ten Spanish women aged over 65 years have no company at home. And, just as in surrounding countries, this figure has not ceased to grow in recent decades. If in 1981 barely 19% of elderly women lived in single-person homes, by 2011 they represented 27.1%. More recent data confirm this tendency, because in 2016 women aged over 65 years who lived alone totalled 28.8%, according to the ongoing Households Survey produced by Spain’s National Statistics Institute. 

With these figures it is possible to get an idea of the social transformations and changes in family patterns that are coming about in all European societies. In this sense, nearly 56% of Spaniards consider that today, elderly parents are more poorly cared for than in the past (Study 3.109 of the CIS, from September 2015). Moreover, the same study shows that many of those surveyed recognise that they have very little contact with family members aged over 65 years who do not live with them: a third say that they talk never, or only occasionally (33% by telephone and 30.3% in person; the answers of those saying “never”, “only weekends and/or bank holidays” and “occasionally” are grouped together. And there are many more who have little relationship with elderly family members in other activities, such as walking (68.6% never, or only occasionally do this), going to the cinema or leisure activities (85.5%), helping them with personal care (82.6%) or sharing housework and personal care tasks (87.2%).

In addition to the cultural and family-related changes, these percentages reflect demographic and economic transformations. Improvements in health and increases in life expectancy and material wellbeing mean that older people increasingly opt for personal autonomy. However, living without company at advanced ages is not always a choice. Behind this tendency there are changes in the family structure and the fact that today families are smaller. Specifically, the decreasing size of families is crucial for understanding that today many more elderly women live alone by comparison to just a few decades back, even in societies like that of Spain, where the family has traditionally played a central role.

There can be no doubt that this question has great social relevance. Elderly women who live alone are a vulnerable social collective: this situation is associated with more social isolation and a higher risk of illness, but also with lower levels of psychological welfare, personal satisfaction and perceived quality of life (Golden et al., 2009; Yeh and Lo, 2004).

It is true that there are now also more elderly men who live alone than in the past, but the study is focused on women if only for two reasons. One is strictly numerical: in this age group, there are more women than men because they enjoy greater longevity, i.e. they live more years. Furthermore, and unlike what happens in other countries, from the age of 65 years women live alone in a higher proportion (27.1%) than men (12.6%). However, there is also a second more practical reason that makes us focus on women. The study is based on population censuses that include information on the number of children that women have had. That enables us to study more precisely the impact of family size on the probability of living without company at advanced ages, and also makes it possible to predict the size of the phenomenon in the future.

The factors that explain why women live alone at advanced ages are diverse: the economic situation, state of health, place where they live, educational level, whether they are foreign or not, whether they have a partner, whether they have children, etc. Even though all of these can influence to a certain extent the probability of women living alone  at advanced ages, the most relevant factor is whether or not they have had children. Specifically, among the elderly women who have not had children, in 2011 some 38.3% lived alone, while among those that had had children, the sum was considerably lower, standing at 26.4%. This difference between those that have had children and those that have not had them is considerable. But not only is it important whether or not they have had children; how many children they have had also matters. As we could imagine, the probability of living alone at an advanced age is lower the higher the number of children. 

The clear relationship that we observe between the fact that they live alone at advanced ages and their fertility history is a strong association and a significant one in statistical terms. In other words, it is a relationship that is maintained even in more sophisticated analyses that simultaneously take into account demographic and social characteristics that may also bear an influence, such as age (it is not the same to be 65 as to be 100 years old), educational level, place of residence, migratory status, home ownership or current civil status.

We could think that, in addition to the number of children, the civil status of elderly women is a very relevant factor for understanding this phenomenon. In fact, as it is easy to imagine, there are very few elderly women who are currently married and live alone (under 2%), whereas among widows the figure exceeds 50%. In other words, it is much more probable for an elderly woman to live alone if she is single or a widow than if she is married and her partner still alive, because in the latter case, the immense majority live with their husband and/or with other family members.

Even though the civil status is decisive, the number of children is still a relevant factor in explaining the probability of living alone at advanced ages. And the fact is that, independently of civil status, women with children have a lower probability of living alone at advanced ages in comparison with those who have never had children. For example, we know that in general terms, some 53% of widowed older women live alone, but within this group there are many more that live alone if they have not had children (66% of widows) by comparison with those who have had children (52%). And the same thing happens with other civil statuses. In other words, as much among single women as among married, separated, divorced or widowed women, it is more probable that they will live alone at advanced ages if they have not had children.

This regularity that we find between number of children and living arrangements at advanced ages is quite intuitive and easy to understand. The more children women have had, the more probable that they will live accompanied in their old age because, in general terms, large families establish more family bonds than small ones. It is important to bear in mind, however, that although the number of children is a very important factor in causing the probability of living alone to fall, it is not completely determinant to make this so. In fact, the data also permit an alternative reading: children tend to reduce the probability of living alone, but there are quite a lot of elderly women who, although they have had children, live alone (26.4%) and, to the contrary, there are many more that have not had children and live accompanied (61.7%).

We can consider, therefore, that in the phenomenon of living unaccompanied at advanced ages, there is a combination of elements that are related with individual decisions, but also with more structural impediments or restrictions. With the data from the census it is impossible to distinguish whether any particular behaviour (in this case, living alone)  is voluntary or involuntary. Also, everything points to a certain simultaneity of factors: on the one hand, personal autonomy is an increasingly significant value, for elderly people too; on the other, the objective conditions are present to do so, because now elderly people have more social and economic resources to live alone than in the past. 

The confirmation that there is a clear association between number of children and the possibility of living alone without company at advanced ages is, in itself, a significant result right now. It informs society and those in charge of the formulation of policies to act to resolve the specific needs of this collective, such as the risk of social isolation and loss of quality of life. However, it is not only relevant for understanding the present. Identifying this relationship is crucial, also, because it helps us to predict the evolution of the phenomenon in the future and to be one step ahead, therefore, of the needs that will present themselves. 

At present elderly women who live alone form a numerous and vulnerable group and this will be accentuated in the future. There are two demographic phenomena pointing in this direction. The first is increased longevity and, with it, increased life expectancy. The second is the fall in fertility rates. People are having increasingly fewer children so families are getting smaller. If women have to live more years – many of them in good health – and, as we have shown above, a lower number of children increases their probability of living alone, everything indicates that in coming years the size of the phenomenon of elderly women who live alone will become even bigger. 

Over recent decades, the number of women aged over 65 years has not ceased to increase, practically multiplying by two. But the increase in elderly women who live alone has been even more pronounced: in 2011 the population of elderly women was 1.88 times higher than in 1981, while that of elderly women who live alone had multiplied by 2.68 in the same period. While in the 1980s the number of elderly women who lived alone barely reached half a million, by 2011 they numbered almost 1.3 million and in 15 years’ time they could number around two million. The estimate for 2031, specifically, is that 1.87 million elderly women will live alone. This projection has been made based on information available in the population censuses on women aged over 45 years who have already completed the reproduction cycle. At this age, the majority will we unlikely to go on to have children and, therefore, if we make a projection of current tendencies and the effect of the number of children on the probability of living alone at advanced ages (as described in the previous section), it is possible to estimate how many will live alone in the future. 

All of this has important implications for the design of social policies and for the organisation of welfare services. Elderly people who live alone present a higher probability of exclusion and social isolation, and they require more attention, care and monitoring. For this reason it is important to know and anticipate social and demographic changes to social and political responses. Only this way will it be possible for welfare services and society to adapt and be capable of responding to needs that are already a reality and that will be even more so in the coming decades.

Golden, J., R. M. Conroy, I. Bruce, A. Denihan, E. Greene, M. Kirby and B. A. Lawlor (2009): «Loneliness, social support networks, mood and wellbeing in community dwelling elderly», International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24(7), 694-700.

Reher, D. and M. Requena (2017): «Elderly women living alone in Spain: the importance of having children», European Journal of Ageing, 14(3)

Yeh, S. C. J., and S. K. Lo (2004): «Living alone, social support, and feeling lonely among the elderly», Social Behavior and Personality, 32(2), 129-138.