LIVING ARRANGEMENTS OF NON-MARRIED ELDERLY PEOPLE IN THE NETHERLANDS IN 1990

In 1990, approximately one out of every three elderly persons in the Netherlands was living alone. This proportion has almost doubled since 1960. This sharp increase in living alone among the elderly has attracted attention in political circles and among policy makers. An understanding of living arrangements of elderly people is critical for a determination of the likely need for public care, such as home help and district nursing, and institutional care. Elderly persons who live alone require public care services sooner, whether or not as a supplement to informal care from persons outside the household. This article examines the living arrangements of the elderly in the Netherlands. Special attention is paid to the household structure of unmarried and no longer married elderly persons, and why so many of them live alone. The data used in this study are taken from the 1989/90 Housing Demand Survey (WBO), which is a large-scale sample survey containing approximately 50,000 Dutch households.