IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joprea/v36y2019i2d10.1007_s12546-019-09222-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Solitary living in South Africa: what is driving the pattern and change?

Author

Listed:
  • Nyasha Mutanda

    (University of the Witwatersrand)

  • Clifford O. Odimegwu

    (University of the Witwatersrand)

Abstract

Little is known about solitary living in sub-Saharan Africa, despite the prevalence of evidence in countries like South Africa showing that one-person households (OPHs) are on the rise. This paper examines the determinants of solitary living and the contribution of these factors to the rise in solitary living in South Africa. The analysis was based on 10% samples from three successive censuses of South Africa (1996, 2001, 2011). The multilevel binary logistic regression model was used to identify the determinants and a non-linear multivariate decomposition method was used to identify key contributing factors. The proportion of OPHs increased from 17.8% in 1996 to 27.5% in 2011. Living alone was found to be associated with various important demographic and socio-economic factors. Predominantly, the increase in solitary living in South Africa is attributed to compositional change of characteristics (68.5%) compared to change in the effects of characteristics (31.5%). The main contributing factors were compositional shifts in household ownership, household income level, migration and employment. More research on solitary living is needed to inform policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Nyasha Mutanda & Clifford O. Odimegwu, 2019. "Solitary living in South Africa: what is driving the pattern and change?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 137-158, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:joprea:v:36:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s12546-019-09222-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s12546-019-09222-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12546-019-09222-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12546-019-09222-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Reher & Miguel Requena, 2018. "Living Alone in Later Life: A Global Perspective," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 427-454, September.
    2. Jeong Hwa Ho, 2015. "The problem group? Psychological wellbeing of unmarried people living alone in the Republic of Korea," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(47), pages 1299-1328.
    3. Premchand Dommaraju, 2015. "One-person households in India," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(45), pages 1239-1266.
    4. John Bongaarts & Zachary Zimmer, 2002. "Living Arrangements of Older Adults in the Developing World," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(3), pages 145-157.
    5. Yun, Myeong-Su, 2005. "Normalized Equation and Decomposition Analysis: Computation and Inference," IZA Discussion Papers 1822, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Hyunjoon Park & Jaesung Choi, 2015. "Long-term trends in living alone among Korean adults: Age, gender, and educational differences," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(43), pages 1177-1208.
    7. Myeong-Su Yun, 2005. "A Simple Solution to the Identification Problem in Detailed Wage Decompositions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(4), pages 766-772, October.
    8. Chai Podhisita & Peter Xenos, 2015. "Living alone in South and Southeast Asia," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(41), pages 1113-1146.
    9. Ron Lesthaeghe, 2010. "The Unfolding Story of the Second Demographic Transition," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 211-251, June.
    10. Daniel A. Powers & Hirotoshi Yoshioka & Myeong-Su Yun, 2011. "mvdcmp: Multivariate decomposition for nonlinear response models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 11(4), pages 556-576, December.
    11. Juliet Stone & Ann Berrington & Jane Falkingham, 2011. "The changing determinants of UK young adults' living arrangements," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(20), pages 629-666.
    12. Lynn Jamieson & Fran Wasoff & Roona Simpson, 2009. "Solo-Living, Demographic and Family Change: The Need to know more about men," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 14(2), pages 20-35, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeofrey Bautista Abalos & Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, 2023. "Demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors for the rise in one-person households in developing countries: the case of the Philippines," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 1-32, December.
    2. Adam Ka-Lok Cheung & Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, 2021. "Socioeconomic development and young adults’ propensity of living in one-person households: Compositional and contextual effects," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(11), pages 277-306.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adam Ka-Lok Cheung & Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, 2021. "Socioeconomic development and young adults’ propensity of living in one-person households: Compositional and contextual effects," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(11), pages 277-306.
    2. Albert Esteve & David S. Reher & Rocío Treviño & Pilar Zueras & Anna Turu, 2020. "Living Alone over the Life Course: Cross‐National Variations on an Emerging Issue," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(1), pages 169-189, March.
    3. Wei-Jun Jean Yeung & Adam Ka-Lok Cheung, 2015. "Living Alone," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(40), pages 1099-1112.
    4. Jianye Liu & Juyan Wang & Roderic Beaujot & Zenaida Ravanera, 2020. "Determinants of adults’ solo living in Canada: a longitudinal perspective," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 53-71, March.
    5. Albert Esteve & David S. Reher, 2021. "Rising Global Levels of Intergenerational Coresidence Among Young Adults," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(3), pages 691-717, September.
    6. Jeofrey Bautista Abalos & Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, 2023. "Demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors for the rise in one-person households in developing countries: the case of the Philippines," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 1-32, December.
    7. James Raymo, 2015. "Living alone in Japan: Relationships with happiness and health," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(46), pages 1267-1298.
    8. Hyunjoon Park & Jaesung Choi, 2015. "Long-term trends in living alone among Korean adults: Age, gender, and educational differences," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(43), pages 1177-1208.
    9. Barr, Tavis & Lin, Carl, 2015. "A detailed decomposition of synthetic cohort analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 76-80.
    10. Glenn Sandström & Fredinah Namatovu & Jens Ineland & Daniel Larsson & Nawi Ng & Mikael Stattin, 2021. "The Persistence of High Levels of Living Alone Among Adults with Disabilities in Sweden, 1993–2011," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(2), pages 163-185, April.
    11. Peter Huber & Doris A. Oberdabernig, 2013. "Does Migration Threaten the Sustainability of European Welfare States? WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 21," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46882.
    12. Athina Economou & Christos Kollias, 2024. "The 2015 Refugee Crisis and Institutional Trust in European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 377-396, June.
    13. Acosta-Ballesteros, Juan & Osorno-Del Rosal, Maria del Pilar & Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Olga Maria, 2021. "Measuring the effect of gender segregation on the gender gap in time-related underemployment," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 55, pages 1-22.
    14. Carlos Gradin, 2009. "Why is Poverty So High Among Afro-Brazilians? A Decomposition Analysis of the Racial Poverty Gap," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(9), pages 1426-1452.
    15. Hina Amber & Bezawit Beyene Chichaibelu, 2023. "Narrowing the gender digital divide in Pakistan: Mobile phone ownership and female labor force participation," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1354-1382, August.
    16. Glenn Sandström & Lena Karlsson, 2019. "The educational gradient of living alone: A comparison among the working-age population in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(55), pages 1645-1670.
    17. Angelique Chan & Abhijit Visaria & Bina Gubhaju & Stefan Ma & Yasuhiko Saito, 2021. "Gender differences in years of remaining life by living arrangement among older Singaporeans," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 453-466, December.
    18. Michal Brzezinski, 2019. "Diagnosing Unhappiness Dynamics: Evidence from Poland and Russia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(7), pages 2291-2327, October.
    19. Peter Huber & Ulrike Huemer, 2015. "Gender Differences in Lifelong Learning: An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Marriage and Children," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(1), pages 32-51, March.
    20. Lin, Carl & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana, 2018. "Parental Migration Decisions and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 11986, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joprea:v:36:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s12546-019-09222-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.