Household composition across the new Europe: Where do the new Member States fit in?

One-person households in India

“…There are also important differences in gender, age and marital status of older persons living alone (United Nations 2005). In the context of Europe, though there are large inter-country variations, living alone was much more pronounced at older ages and for women (Iacovou and Skew 2011). In much of Asia, intergenerational co-residence was traditionally valued, and children provided security in old age (Chui 2007).…”

Active ageing and material deprivation of older generations in Europe and in Poland - how do they interplay?

“…There are quite a lot of analyses and studies on material deprivation and poverty of older generations (Jehoel-Gijbers and Vrooman 2008;Zaidi 2010;Fusco et al 2010, Fusco et al 2011Atkinson 2010;Iacovou, Skew 2010;Goedemé 2010). The EU's definition is often invoked: "material deprivation can be defined as the inability to possess the goods and services and/or engage in activities that are ordinary in the society or that are socially perceived as »necessities«" (Fusco et al 2010: 7).…”

Generational interdependencies in families

“…adults living with their parents) favours the exchange of support, economic and otherwise (see Heylen et al 2012 in this special collection). In their contribution, using data from round 2 of the European Social Survey, Jappens and Van Bavel (2012) show large variations across Europe in the rate of intergenerational co-residence, reflecting historical, cultural and socio-political differences (Billari 2004;Iacovou and Skew 2011). More than 48% of the 55-plus live with adult children in Ireland, parts of Spain, Italy, Hungary, and Poland, but less than 15% of the 55-plus do so in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark and most of Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands.…”