Living alone on rise among youth, elderly

The number of persons living alone continued to grow in 2019, according to Statistics Finland.

In comparison with the previous year, the number of persons living alone grew by around 30,000. In the last 10 years, the number of persons living alone has grown most in the age groups of persons aged less than 30 and those aged more than 65.

In young age groups, living alone is more common for men, while the majority of elderly people living alone are women. Living alone is most common in the age group of persons aged over 75, in which nearly every second person lives alone.

There were altogether 2.73 million household-dwelling units at the end of 2019.

In the last 10 years, the number of one-person households has decreased only among those aged 45 to 54. By contrast, living alone has increased in all other age groups.

Living alone has grown most among persons aged 70 to74. In 2019, there were 55 per cent more persons belonging to this age group living alone than in 2009.

The growth in the number of persons living alone in the age group is partly explained by the fact that persons belonging to the large age groups born between 1945 and 1949 were aged between 70 and 74 in 2019.

In 2009, persons belonging to those groups were aged 60 to 64 and were the largest age group of the working-age household-dwelling population living alone. In 2019, the number of persons aged over 70 living alone was altogether around 74,000 higher than 10 years earlier.