Living alone as a lifestyle of older people in New Zealand: policy implications

Peggy Koopman-Boyden is currently Senior Fellow in Social Gerontology at the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis at the University of Waikato, working on research programmes related to ageing. Sheena Moosa is a PhD student. the motivations of older New Zealanders (aged 65 and over) who live alone, and the strategies they adopt to make their solo lifestyle meaningful. Living alone is usually referred to as residing in a ‘single-person household’ as a ‘solo dweller’ (Dickens et al., 2011; Klinenberg, 2012). While living in this way is often seen as contributing to social isolation and loneliness, it does not necessarily mean that the person is socially alone. Research in the United Kingdom and elsewhere has found that, while nearly everyone who was isolated lived alone, not everyone who lived alone was isolated (Rolls et al., 2010). In modern societies we now have people living alone (physically) but with a spouse or partner residing elsewhere with whom they have social contact (living apart together or LAT) (Reimondos, Evans and Gray, 2011). Similarly, there are singletons who live alone but have many social contacts and activities and are not lonely (Birnholtz and Jones-Rounds, 2010). Thus, in studying the phenomenon of living alone Introduction