The Sociopedia

  How changing families, delayed marriage, urbanisation, migration, ageing and the search for autonomy are reshaping everyday life There was a time when living alone was generally treated as an exception. A person might live alone because they had been widowed, separated from a spouse, sent away for work or education, or otherwise found themselves outside the ordinary family household. In many societies, the household was expected to contain several generations at once - parents, children, siblings and grandparents under the same roof. That arrangement has not disappeared, but it is no longer the only familiar model. Across much of the world, households are becoming smaller, and a growing number of people are living completely on their own. People are marrying later, having fewer children, moving farther from their families for education and employment, divorcing or separating, remaining single for longer, and leaving the parental home to establish an independent life. Taken to...