Background: Worldwide, the number of people living in a one-person household (OPH) is rising, and young and middle-aged adults play an essential role in this trend. Germany has one of Europe’s highest rates of OPHs. Due to the country’s unique sociohistorical background, this paper looks at a 30-year period to examine how the increase in OPHs among 20–54-year-old men and women has developed since German reunification. Methods: We use data from the German Microcensus from 1991 to 2021 to calculate the annual share of individuals living in an OPH. Following an algebraic decomposition approach proposed by Evelyn Kitagawa and adapted by Glenn Firebaugh, we split the sample into 13 5-year birth cohorts to examine the effects of within-cohort change and cohort replacement in the rising share of OPHs. Results: After German reunification, the increase in OPHs was first driven by within-cohort change, most likely caused by different mechanisms in East and West Germany. Since the mid to late 2000s, cohort replacement has become the main force behind the increase in OPHs. West German women deviate from this in showing only a moderate rise in OPHs almost entirely driven by cohort replacement throughout the 30 years analysed here. Contribution: Considering East–West and gender differences extends our knowledge of how structural factors add to the increase in OPHs. Living alone is not merely the result of individual choices but also of sociohistorical circumstances. Future research must consider that a growing number of adults will have experienced an episode of living alone at least once in their lifetime.

中文翻译：

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中青年独居人数激增：1991 年至 2021 年德国单人家庭增加的分解分析（作者：Anne-Sophie Oehrlein、Christof Wolf）

背景： 在全球范围内，生活在一人家庭 （OPH） 中的人数正在增加，中青年在这一趋势中发挥着至关重要的作用。德国是欧洲 OPH 率最高的国家之一。由于该国独特的社会历史背景，本文着眼于 30 年的时间，以研究自德国统一以来 20-54 岁男性和女性 OPH 的增加是如何发展的。方法：我们使用 1991 年至 2021 年德国微型人口普查的数据来计算生活在 OPH 中的个人的年度份额。遵循 Evelyn Kitagawa 提出并由 Glenn Firebaugh 改编的代数分解方法，我们将样本分成 13 个 5 年出生队列，以检查队列内变化和队列替换对 OPH 份额上升的影响。结果： 德国统一后，OPHs 的增加首先是由队列内变化驱动的，很可能是由东德和西德的不同机制引起的。自 2000 年代中后期以来，队列更替已成为 OPH 增加的主要力量。西德女性与此不同的是，在整个分析的 30 年中，OPH 仅出现适度增加，几乎完全是由队列替换驱动的。贡献： 考虑东西方和性别差异扩展了我们对结构性因素如何增加 OPH 增加的了解。独居不仅是个人选择的结果，也是社会历史环境的结果。未来的研究必须考虑到，越来越多的成年人在他们的一生中至少经历过一次独居。