one person households

• Duncan & Phillips


  -both choice & constraint play part in why people live alone
• choice

  -do what you want in your own space

  -focus on career

  -maintain pre-existing relationships / friendships
• constraint

  -job opportunities

  -can't get visa

  -prison

  -care home

  -not enough money
• examples of increase in number of people living alone

  -pensioner one person households have doubled between 1961 and 2013

  -non pensioner OPH have tripled in same period

  -in 2013, 29% of households were one person > almost tripled since 1961
• reasons for increased one person households


  -increased divorce & separation> men more likely living on their own as mothers tend to get custody of children

  -decline in marriages

  -too few partners in their age group > typically older widows
• what's living apart together?


  -in a relationship but deciding to live in their own properties
• what do Duncan & Phillips say about living apart together?


  both choice & constraint play a part in this decision

  -some may actively choose to live separately

  -others may be unable to live together
• examples of choice


  -wanting their own spaces

  -privacy

  -living with friends
• examples of constraint


  -money

  -long distance

  -needing to care for family members

  -being a student