Abstract

The rise in the proportion of single persons living alone in the United States over the last several decades has been explained in two ways. A consumer demand explanation suggests that increases in income and the ability of persons to afford the desired privacy and autonomy of single person households account for the rise. An alternative explanation suggests that norms, residence rules, and tastes have become more supportive of nonfamilial living arrangements in post-industrial societies and that the proportion of persons living alone would have increased substantially even if income had not risen. Previous evidence for these explanations comes from cross-sectional or aggregate data; this paper tests alternative predictions of the explanations using individual-level survey data from three time points—1960, 1970, and 1976. In contrast to predictions of the consumer demand explanation, the results show that major increases in the proportion of single persons living alone are unexplained by increases in income and other individual-level characteristics of respondents. Although the effect of income on living alone has been constant over time, the existence of significant additive effects of time is consistent with alternative explanations of structural changes in propensity to live alone.

The text of this article is only available as a PDF.

References

Bane, Mary Jo. (
1976
).
Here to Stay: American Families in the Twentieth Century
.
New York
:
Basic Books
.
Beresford, J. C., & Rivlin, A. H. (
1966
).
Privacy, Poverty, and Old Age
.
Demography
,
3
,
247
258
. 10.2307/2060076
Bianchi, Suzanne N. (
1981
).
Household Composition and Racial Inequality
.
New Brunswick, NJ
:
Rutgers
.
Brady, D. S. (
1958
).
Individual Incomes and the Structure of Consumer Units
.
American Economic Review
,
48
,
269
278
.
Burgess, E. W. (
1960
).
Aging in Western Culture
. In Burgess, Ernest W. (Ed.),
Aging in Western Societies
(pp.
3
28
).
Chicago
:
University of Chicago
.
Carliner, Geoffrey (
1975
).
Determinants of Household Headship
.
Journal of Marriage and the Family
,
37
,
28
38
. 10.2307/351028
Chevan, A., & Korson, J. H. (
1972
).
The Widowed Who Live Alone: An Examination of Social and Demographic Factors
.
Social Forces
,
51
,
45
53
. 10.2307/2576130
Goodman, C. A. (
1976
).
The Relationship Between Modified and Usual Multiple-Regression Approaches to the Analysis of Dichotomous Variables
. In Heise, D. (Ed.),
Sociological Methodology
(pp.
83
110
).
San Francisco
:
Jossey-Bass
.
Hanushek, Eric A., & Jackson, John E. (
1977
).
Statistical Methods for Social Scientists
.
New York
:
Academic Press
.
Hughes, M., & Gove, W. R. (
1981
).
Living Alone, Social Integration, and Mental Health
.
American Journal of Sociology
,
87
,
48
74
. 10.1086/227419
Kobrin, F. E. (
1976
).
The Fall in Household Size and the Rise of the Primary Individual in the United States
.
Demography
,
13
,
127
138
. 10.2307/2060425
Kobrin, F. E. (
1981
).
Family Extension and the Elderly: Economic, Demographic, and Life Cycle Factors
.
Journal of Gerontology
,
3
,
370
377
.
Michael, Robert T., Fuchs, Victor R., & Scott, Sharon R. (
1980
).
Changes in the Propensity to Live Alone: 1950–1976
.
Demography
,
17
,
39
53
. 10.2307/2060962
Pampel, Fred C. (
1981
).
Social Change and the Aged: Recent Trends in the U.S
.
Lexington, MA
:
Lexington Books
.
Soldo, Beth J. 1977. The Role of Demographic Composition in Accounting for Changes in the Distribution of Living Arrangements Among the Elderly. Paper presented at the Population Association of America, April 21–23, St. Louis.
Sussman, M. B. (
1976
).
The Family Life of Old People
. In Binstock, Robert H., & Shanas, Ethel (Eds.),
Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences
(pp.
218
243
).
New York
:
Van Nostrand Reinhold
.
Theil, Henri (
1971
).
Principles of Econometrics
.
New York
:
Wiley
.
Troll, L. E. (
1971
).
The Family in Later Life: A Decade Review
.
Journal of Marriage and the Family
,
33
,
263
290
. 10.2307/349414
Statistical Abstract of the U.S
. (
1976
).
Washington, DC
:
U.S. Government Printing Office
.