The number of people living alone in Scotland is projected to top one million for the first time by 2032, according to new figures from National Records of Scotland.
NRS projects the number of households will increase by 6.7% from 2022 to 2032 to a total of 2.68 million. Within that total 1,018,000 (38%) will be a single person household.
The increase is equivalent to 17,000 more households per year.
Sandy Taylor, head of household statistics at NRS said: “The number of households in Scotland is projected to grow at a faster rate than the population. This is because Scotland’s population is ageing and people are more likely to live alone as they get older. By 2032 it is projected that just over one fifth of the population aged 16 and over will be living alone. This proportion increases with age. It’s just over a third for those aged 65 and over and more than half for those aged 85 and over.”
Men are more likely to be living alone than women in all age groups up to 64 years old. However from this point onwards women are more likely to be living alone and this likelihood increases with age. This reflects greater life expectancy of females and also the tendency of women to have partners who are older than them.
Most areas of Scotland are seeing an increase in the number of households, with Midlothian being the highest at 17.4%. With a projected fall of 1% in the number of households, Inverclyde is the only local authority area projected to show a decrease. Relatively small increases are projected for West Dunbartonshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Na h-Eileanan Siar and North Ayrshire.
The full publication ‘2022-based Household projections for Scotland’ and an infographic overview and interactive visualisations are available on the National Records of Scotland website.
