Understanding living alone among the young- and middle-aged in China (1990-2010): A gender perspective

Living alone is becoming a noticeable living arrangement in China. A growing body of literature documented the transformations of the Chinese family structure. However, research on the relatively new household structure of living alone, with a focus solely on the young- and middle-aged, is limited. This article used China's 1990, 2000, and 2010 census microdata to analyze how marital status, migration status, and education level were associated with living alone behavior among the young- and middle-aged. A gender perspective was involved in the entire analyses. We found that singlehood, migration, and education were all combined with gender and woven into a picture depicting the Chinese living alone during 1990–2010. Never married rural men (since 2000) and all divorced women have a relatively higher risk of living alone; mobility was more likely to bring about living alone for rural-hukou holders than urban-hukou holders. Decomposition analyses revealed that the increase in living alone of the young- and middle-aged was mainly driven by changes in migration and marital status, with changes in educational level playing a particularly important role in the rise of women living alone. In conclusion, unlike the observed pattern of living alone in the West, living alone in China is highly gendered and embodied in a rural-urban dual institution.