In the last fifteen years, the number of elderly persons older than 65 years of age who are living in Spain has been published. At present, there are about 1,600,000 elderly persons in this situation according to the book “Elderly persons living on their”, which has just been published by the professor of the Universidad de Granada Juan López Doblas. According to this book, edited by the Department of Employment and Social Affairs, the number of widowed women who are living on their own is higher than the number of elderly men.
Juan López Doblas, a professor of the department of Sociology of the Universidad de Granada and member of the research team on ageing of the Caisse Nationale D’Assurance Vieillesse (Paris) maintains that, within Andalusia, the eastern provinces have a higher rate of elderly persons living on their own than the western ones. Granada is one of the provinces with a highest rate of elderly persons living on their own, beyond the national rate of one of every five elderly persons living alone.
According to the author of the book, “the increase of this type of single homes inhabited by elderly persons reflects very clearly the modernization of Spanish families: some years ago, moving to the daughters´ house (preferably) was the most frequent choice for those who were widowed at an elderly age; nowadays, the desire of staying on their own home as far as possible predominates, even if they have no company. This growing desire of autonomy is being favoured, among other factors of social change, by the improvement of the economic position and the state of health of the persons of 65 or more years of age in Spain”.
“Elderly persons living on their own” provides the keys to understand in a comprehensive way the day-to-day life of elderly persons, and stresses aspects such as the reasons why they choose to live on their own, their refusal to residential homes and looking for new couples, their most common and the way to solve them, as well as the role of social services or the state of social relations and their bonds with their relatives.
Reference:
Professor Juan López Doblas. Department of Sociology. Universidad de Granada.
Phone number: 958 248065. Mobile: 670 340750.
E-mail: jdoblas@ugr.es