Life‐course trajectories and spatial segregation in older age

Abstract

There are few reasons to believe that social segregation is restricted to the working age population. Still, attempts to analyse social segregation among old age individuals have been lacking. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to explore the extent to which old age individuals who follow different sociodemographic trajectories are geographically segregated. We analyse residential segregation among older age adults, based on an identification of typical sociodemographic life courses in longitudinal, geo‐coded, register data for three life phases: young old, 65–79 years, middle old, 75–89 years and, oldest old, 85–99 years. The results show great life‐course heterogeneity in these age groups. In each life phase, we distinguish seven different trajectory types that also display distinct geographical patterns. The first group of trajectories is characterized by a high proportion of married individuals with high income concentrated in suburban, single‐family housing areas. The second group consists of trajectories with many widows/widowers in small‐scale, apartment areas. The third group consists of singleton trajectories in metropolitan areas. The fourth group is overrepresented in low‐income areas and consists of trajectories including individuals of nonsurvival in the life phase. The fifth group is composed of trajectories with married or widowed low‐income individuals in owner‐occupied areas mainly found in rural areas. Thus, there is pronounced geographical variation in what type of neighbourhood life old age individuals live. This indicates that social segregation in the old age population deserves to be given more attention in geographical research.