A Profile of Older Americans: 2002
Living Arrangements
Over
half (55%) the older noninstitutionalized persons lived with their
spouse in 2000. Approximately 10.1 million or 73% of older men,
and 7.7 million or 41% of older women, lived with their spouse
(Figure 3).
The proportion living with their spouse decreased with age, especially
for women. Only 28.8% of women 75+ years old lived with a spouse.
About
30% (9.7 million) of all noninstitutionalized older persons in
2000 lived alone (7.4 million women, 2.4 million men). They represented
40% of older women and 17% of older men. The proportion living
alone increases with advanced age. Among women aged 75 and over,
for example, half (49.4%) lived alone.
About
633,000 grandparents aged 65 or over maintained households in
which grandchildren were present in 1997.
In addition, 510,000 grandparents over 65 years lived in
parent- maintained households in which their grandchildren were
present.
While
a relatively small number (1.56 million) and percentage (4.5%)
of the 65+ population lived in nursing homes in 2000, the percentage
increases dramatically with age, ranging from 1.1% for persons
65-74 years to 4.7% for persons 75-84 years and 18.2% for persons
85+.
Figure
3: Living Arrangements of Persons 65+: 2000
(Based
on data from U.S. Bureau of the Census. See: "America’s
Families and Living Arrangements; Population Characteristics:
June, 2001, Current Population Reports, P20-537” and “The
65 Years and Over Population: 2000, Census 2000 Brief, October,
2001.”)
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