Starting and ending one-person households: A longitudinal analysis

Statistics on one-person households in Australia are primarily based on cross-sectional data, in particular census data. While analyses based on points in time are important in detecting trends in living alone rate and factors and circumstances associated with living alone, this approach is likely to understate the extent to which people may experience living alone at some stage in their life. More importantly, analysis based on cross-sectional data is not able to capture the processes that lead a person to live alone or give up solo living. Despite the rise in one-person households in Australia, there has been little research on the dynamics of forming and ending solo living. Drawing on the data of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (Wave 1 to Wave 4), this article explores change of one-person households and the processes that may lead to form and end one-person households.