Single person households in Spain: transformations and territorial distribution rules

Isabel Pujadas, Universitat de Barcelona
Cristina López, Universitat de Barcelona

Living alone in Spain is more and more not related to old age and rural life and is presented as an alternative residential option. Unipersonal households increase at all ages, diversify their composition and become typologies of great weight in large cities. This paper proposes: a) To analyze the increase of unipersonal households in Spain and study their growth in relation to the sociodemographical changes typical of the Second Demographic Transition. b) To explain the diversified sociodemographic profile of unipersonal households - rejuvenation, growth of single and divorced persons and higher education and professionalization- from the analysis of the latest census microdata. c) To study the spatial differentiation between cities and their suburban crowns, and between the largest-sized municipalities and the most rural ones, with the aim of devising a provincial typology from the drawing up of a hierarchical cluster.