Living Alone in the City

Autor(en)

Nina-Sophie Fritsch, Bernhard Riederer, Lena Seewann

Abstrakt

Over the past decades, the number of single households is constantly rising in metropolitan regions. In addition, they became increasingly heterogeneous. In the media, individuals who live alone are sometimes still presented as deficient. Recent research, however, indicates a way more complex picture. Using the example of Vienna, this paper investigates the quality of life of different groups of single households in the city. Based on five waves of the Viennese Quality of Life Survey covering almost a quarter of a century (1995–2018), we analyse six domains of subjective well-being (satisfaction with the financial situation, the housing situation, the main activity, the family life, social contacts, and leisure time activities). Our analyses reveal that, in most domains, average satisfaction of single households has hardly changed over time. However, among those living alone satisfaction of senior people (60+) increased while satisfaction of younger people (below age 30) decreased. Increasing differences in satisfaction with main activity, housing, or financial situation reflect general societal developments on the Viennese labour and housing markets. The old clichéd images of the “young, reckless, happy single” and the “lonely, poor, dissatisfied senior single” reverse reality.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Soziologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Universität Potsdam, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (WU), Statistik Austria, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)

Journal

Applied Research in Quality of Life

Band

18

Seiten

2065-2087

Anzahl der Seiten

23

ISSN

1871-2584

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10177-w

Publikationsdatum

05-2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

504006 Demographie, 504011 Familienforschung

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Life-span and Life-course Studies

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/0275c604-67eb-43e6-862b-90f7f32b0bcb