Who is living alone?
• In 2011–12, almost one-half (42%) of all people aged 65 years or older lived in lone-person
households, compared with 15% aged 35–44 years (ABS 2013a).
• People in lone-person households were more likely to live in a separate house (62%) than a flat/
unit or apartment (21%) or a semi-detached townhouse (17%), with an average of 2.5 bedrooms
(ABS 2013b). This is likely to be due to the high proportion of older Australians living alone who
own their home.
• Sixty per cent of lone-person households were in capital cities—this was slightly higher for
lone-person households aged 35–44 years (66%). Of all lone-person households, those aged 35–44
years also had the highest median income (ABS 2013a).
• Among social housing tenants in Australia, more than one-half of public rental housing
households (53%) comprised a single person living alone (AIHW 2015).