Kinlessness across Europe: Prevalence and Heterogeneity

Marta Pittavino, University of Florence
Bruno Arpino, University of Padua
Elena Pirani , Florence University

Availability of kin has profound effects on the lives of people, especially in later life when social networks tend to be composed prevalently of family members and care needs tend to increase. Using data from the last wave (wave 8; 2019-2020) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we estimate the prevalence of kinlessness (i.e., absence of close kin) among older adults aged 65 and more in 27 countries. We consider different definitions of kinlessness, from a less restrictive (i.e., based only on absence of both partner and children) to a more restrictive one (including the absence of all kin, or also grandchildren, parents and siblings). Results show a large variation of kinlessness across countries. The proportion of adults aged 65 and above who lack both a partner and children range between 2-3.5% in Czech Republic, Romania, Israel, or Bulgaria, and more than 8% in Switzerland Spain, Belgium or Malta. The median value of the proportion of old people lacking all considered kin is 1.4% (ranging from 0.1 to 4.1%). In addition, we found a substantial heterogeneity in kinlessness within country when considering age groups, sex, and education. Understanding the prevalence of older individuals without close kin is critical for policymakers and healthcare providers to design appropriate support systems for this particularly vulnerable group of older people and their unmet care needs.

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 Presented in Session P1. Fertility, Family, Life Course