Department of Health and
Human Services
Administration on Aging
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Statistics
A Profile of
Older Americans: 2007
Living Arrangements
Over
half (54.8%) the older noninstitutionalized persons lived with their
spouse in 2006. Approximately 10.9 million or 71.9% of older men, and
8.5 million or 41.9% of older women, lived with their spouse
(Figure 3). The proportion living with their spouse decreased
with age, especially for women. Only 29.8% of women 75+ years old lived
with a spouse.
About
30.3% (10.7 million) of all noninstitutionalized older persons in 2006
lived alone (7.8 million women, 2.9 million men). They represented 38.4
of older women and 19.4% of older men. The proportion living alone
increases with advanced age. Among women aged 75 and over, for example,
half (48%) lived alone.
More than 670,000 grandparents aged 65 or
over maintained households in which grandchildren were present in
2006. (Another 220,000 elderly were spouses of such
people.) In addition, over 800,000 grandparents over 65 years
lived in parent- maintained households in which their grandchildren
were present. A total of about 1.78 million older people
lived in household with a grandchild present in the house. About 450,000 of
these grandparents over 65 years old were the persons with primary
responsibility for their grandchildren who lived with them.
While
a relatively small number (1.62 million) and percentage (4.4%) of the
65+ population in 2006 lived in institutional settings such as nursing
homes, the percentage increases dramatically with age, ranging from
1.3% for persons 65-74 years to 4.4% for persons 75-84 years and 15.4%
for persons 85+. In addition, approximately 2%-5% (depending
on the definition) of the elderly lived in senior housing with at least
one supportive service available to their residents.
Figure
3: Living Arrangements of Persons 65+, 2006
(Based
on data from U.S. Bureau of the Census including the 2007 Current
Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement and the 2006
American Community Survey. See: March 2007 Current
Population Survey Internet releases, Detailed Tables and unpublished
data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.)
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