The relationship between incomes and living arrangements: variation between countries, over the life course, and over time

This paper uses data from the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions 2005-2010 to examine the relationship between incomes and people’s living arrangements, both at the aggregate level (that is, how living arrangements vary with GDP) and at the level of individual behaviour, within countries. We know from previous studies that there are substantial variations in living arrangements between countries in the EU; this study is the first to examine systematically the way in which the relationship between income and living arrangements varies over the life course, and how these variations differ between countries. We find marked variation over the life course, with distinct differences in this life-course variation between countries. However, when we extend this analysis to examine changes over a period which includes the recent recession, we find very little evidence to suggest that living arrangements have changed in response to the recession.