IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vid/yearbk/v19y2021i1oid0x003c9dcb.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Singles in the city: happily ever after?

Author

Listed:
  • Bernhard Riederer
  • Nina-Sophie Fritsch
  • Lena Seewann

Abstract

More people than ever are living in cities, and in these cities, more and more people are living alone. Using the example of Vienna, this paper investigates the subjective well-being of single households in the city. Previous research has identified positive and negative aspects of living alone (e.g., increased freedom vs. missing social embeddedness). We compare single households with other household types using data from the Viennese Quality of Life Survey (1995–2018). In our analysis, we consider overall life satisfaction as well as selected dimensions of subjective wellbeing (i.e., housing, financial situation, main activity, family, social contacts, leisure time). Our findings show that the subjective well-being of single households in Vienna is high and quite stable over time. While single households are found to have lower life satisfaction than two-adult households, this result is mainly explained by singles reporting lower satisfaction with family life. Compared to households with children, singles are more satisfied with their financial situation, leisure time and housing, which helps to offset the negative consequences of missing family ties (in particular with regard to single parents).

Suggested Citation

  • Bernhard Riederer & Nina-Sophie Fritsch & Lena Seewann, 2021. "Singles in the city: happily ever after?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 19(1), pages 319-353.
    • Handle: RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:19:y:2021:i:1:oid:0x003c9dcb
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576_0x003c9dcb.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wen-Chun Chang, 2013. "Family Ties, Living Arrangement, and Marital Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 215-233, March.
    2. Kahn Matthew E., 1995. "A Revealed Preference Approach to Ranking City Quality of Life," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 221-235, September.
    3. Andrea Salvatori & Thomas Manfredi, 2019. "Job polarisation and the middle class: New evidence on the changing relationship between skill levels and household income levels from 18 OECD countries," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 232, OECD Publishing.
    4. Esperanza Vera-Toscano & Victoria Ateca-Amestoy, 2008. "The relevance of social interactions on housing satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 257-274, April.
    5. Ruut Veenhoven, 2000. "The Four Qualities of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-39, March.
    6. Joan Chandler & Malcolm Williams & Moira Maconachie & Tracey Collett & Brian Dodgeon, 2004. "Living Alone: Its Place in Household Formation and Change," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 9(3), pages 42-54, August.
    7. Krekel, Christian & Kolbe, Jens & Wüstemann, Henry, 2016. "The greener, the happier? The effect of urban land use on residential well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 117-127.
    8. Andrew E. Clark & Andrew J. Oswald, 2006. "The curved relationship between subjective well-being and age," Working Papers halshs-00590404, HAL.
    9. Fasang, Anette Eva & Huinink, Johannes & Pollmann-Schult, Matthias, 2016. "Aktuelle Entwicklungen in der deutschen Familiensoziologie: Theorien, Daten, Methoden," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 112-143.
    10. R. Verwiebe & T. Troger & L. Wiesböck & R. Teitzer & N.-S. Fritsch, 2013. "GINI Country Report: Growing Inequalities and their Impacts in Austria," GINI Country Reports austria, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    11. Sofie Vanassche & Gray Swicegood & Koen Matthijs, 2013. "Marriage and Children as a Key to Happiness? Cross-National Differences in the Effects of Marital Status and Children on Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 501-524, April.
    12. Johan Ormel & Siegwart Lindenberg & Nardi Steverink & Lois Verbrugge, 1999. "Subjective Well-Being and Social Production Functions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 61-90, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nina-Sophie Fritsch & Bernhard Riederer & Lena Seewann, 2023. "Living Alone in the City: Differentials in Subjective Well-Being Among Single Households 1995–2018," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 2065-2087, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nina-Sophie Fritsch & Bernhard Riederer & Lena Seewann, 2023. "Living Alone in the City: Differentials in Subjective Well-Being Among Single Households 1995–2018," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 2065-2087, August.
    2. María Navarro, 2019. "Financial, Job and Health Satisfaction: A Comparative Approach on Working People," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Christian Scheve & Frederike Esche & Jürgen Schupp, 2017. "The Emotional Timeline of Unemployment: Anticipation, Reaction, and Adaptation," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1231-1254, August.
    4. Cabane, Charlotte & Hille, Adrian & Lechner, Michael, 2015. "Mozart or Pelé? The effects of teenagers’ participation in music and sports," Economics Working Paper Series 1509, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    5. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2008. "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1733-1749, April.
    6. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    7. Bjornskov, Christian & Dreher, Axel & Fischer, Justina AV & Schnellenbach, Jan, 2009. "On the relation between income inequality and happiness: Do fairness perceptions matter?," MPRA Paper 19494, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. repec:rri:wpaper:200803 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Tyurina, Elena & Nagapetyan, Artur, 2022. "The economic value of the Glass Beach: Contingent valuation and life satisfaction approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    10. Anna Kovacs-Györi & Pablo Cabrera-Barona & Bernd Resch & Michael Mehaffy & Thomas Blaschke, 2019. "Assessing and Representing Livability through the Analysis of Residential Preference," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-23, September.
    11. Fatih Terzi & Handan Türkoğlu & Fulin Bölen & Perver Baran & Tayfun Salihoğlu, 2015. "Residents’ Perception of Cultural Activities as Quality of Life in Istanbul," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 211-234, May.
    12. Dekle, Robert & Eaton, Jonathan, 1999. "Agglomeration and Land Rents: Evidence from the Prefectures," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 200-214, September.
    13. John F. Helliwell & Haifang Huang & Max B. Norton & Shun Wang, 2019. "Happiness at Different Ages: The Social Context Matters," Springer Books, in: Mariano Rojas (ed.), The Economics of Happiness, chapter 0, pages 455-481, Springer.
    14. Matel Anna, 2020. "Tenure Status, Housing Conditions and Residential Satisfaction of Adolescents," Real Estate Management and Valuation, Sciendo, vol. 28(4), pages 24-32, December.
    15. Ning Li, 2016. "Multidimensionality of Longitudinal Data: Unlocking the Age-Happiness Puzzle," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 305-320, August.
    16. Dong, Han & Zhang, Jun & Cirillo, Cinzia, 2019. "Exploring, understanding, and modeling the reciprocal relation between leisure and subjective well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 813-824.
    17. Chang-Ming Hsieh, 2009. "Health, Quality of Care and Quality of Life: A Case of Frail Older Adults," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 61-73, October.
    18. Bieri, David S. & Kuminoff, Nicolai V. & Pope, Jaren C., 2023. "National expenditures on local amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    19. Emilio Colombo & Alessandra Michelangeli & Luca Stanca, 2014. "La Dolce Vita : Hedonic Estimates of Quality of Life in Italian Cities," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(8), pages 1404-1418, August.
    20. Gennaro Punzo & Rosalia Castellano & Mirko Buonocore, 2018. "Job Satisfaction in the “Big Four” of Europe: Reasoning Between Feeling and Uncertainty Through CUB Models," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 205-236, August.
    21. Valerie Møller & Benjamin J. Roberts & Dalindyebo Zani, 2018. "The National Wellbeing Index in the IsiXhosa Translation: Focus Group Discussions on How South Africans View the Quality of Their Society," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 167-193, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:19:y:2021:i:1:oid:0x003c9dcb. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bernhard Rengs (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vid/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.