Estonia has the European Union’s lowest share of women aged 65 and over living alone – only 26% of them live alone, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency.
This is way better than the EU average – four in ten women aged 65 or over, or 40% in the European Union, live alone.
Estonia is followed by Belgium (29%), Spain and Cyprus (both 31%), Portugal (32%) and Denmark (33%), Eurostat said.
Latvia recorded the highest proportion of women aged 65 and over living alone (49%), followed by Slovenia and Germany (both 45%) as well as Finland and the Czech Republic (both 44%).
What comes to men and women aged 15-64, 19 per cent of them live alone; 48% of men and 51% of women live in a couple, and 33% of men and 30% of women live with another adult (not a couple) or more adults, the statistics agency stated.
Eurostat is tasked to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession as well as the European Free Trade Association countries.
Cover: An elderly Estonian woman. The image is illustrative; photo by Jaanus Ree.
