One-person Households – A Resource Time
Bomb?
Author(s)
J. Williams
Abstract
In the western world there is a trend towards the growth of small households,
especially one-person households. In resource terms, one-person households are
likely to consume more land, energy, goods and materials per person than those
living in larger households where resources are shared amongst a greater number
of people. Thus an increase in one-person households is likely to accelerate
domestic consumption of resources over the next twenty years. This paper
demonstrates the scale of the problem internationally and in the UK. It also
investigates the UK Government’s response and suggests ways in which it can
be tackled in the future.
Keywords: resource consumption, one-person households, occupancy rates,
household size, demographic change.
1 One-person household explosion and the potential
consumption crisis
Household size has substantially reduced in Europe over the last 40 years.
Average household size has decreased in the EU, while at the same time the
absolute number of households has increased. More people are living in smaller
households, while the proportion living in four or more person households is
decreasing. The average household size in the EU in 1981/82 was 2.8 persons; in
2000/1 it was 2.5. However, there is variation throughout the EU. Spain,
Portugal and Ireland have the largest households, while Sweden, Finland,
Denmark and Germany, closely followed by the UK, have the smallest. The
UNCHS-Habitat Indicators Programme, 1997 indicated an increase in Europe of
one-person households from the 1960’s onwards. It suggested that the number of
one-person households was especially high in Northern and Western Europe,
Keywords
resource consumption, one-person households, occupancy rates,
household size, demographic change.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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