Only 3% of the elderly in Andalusia live in old people’s homes, a fact that contradicts a well extended social belief like that of the “boom” of this type of accommodation as a consequence of the modern family’s inability to take care of their elderly. This is the conclusion of the report “Social situation of the elderly in Andalusia”, developed by Professors Juan López Doblas and Antonio Trinidad Requena, from the Department of Sociology of the University of Granada, and published by the Centro de Estudios Andaluces (Centre for Andalusian Studies).
According to this research, in Andalusia, most people over 65 live in their own home, not in their families’ house. They live with their couple and, in many cases, they live with a son who still has not become emancipated, or by themselves, when their couple dies. Only 12% live in different familiar situations (at one of their son’s house, for example) and only 3% approximately live in collective accommodations for old people. This information is very similar in the rest of Spain: among people over 65, 5 out of 6 live in their own house.
Statistical resources
This report has been developed thanks to the information obtained from the most important statistical sources such as the Spanish Census of Population and Housing, the local census, the Household Budget Continuous Survey, the living conditions survey from the National Statistics Institute and several documents from the Spanish Department of Employment and Social Affairs, among others.
Researchers from the University of Granada stress the fact that the choice in the accommodation depends on gender. According to the information analysed, 26% of women in Andalusia live by themselves compared to 11% of men. Furthermore, there are many more women living with their children (15.3%) than men (6.5%) Likewise, this work proves that both in Andalusia and in the rest of Spain, four-generation families are getting more and more frequent, thanks to the life expectancy (especially in women). The great grandmother causes less social astonishment currently. Another indicator of the increase of well-being of the elderly people is that they are older at the time when they lose their partner. Once it happens (either the man or the woman dies), they firmly decide to stay at their homes, even alone, instead of moving to their family’s house or to an old person’s home as it used to happen.
Reference
Prof. Juan López Doblas. Departamento de Sociología de la Universidad de Granada.
Phone: 958 248 065. E-mail: jdoblas@ugr.es
