Living with family beyond age 85

The maps show proportions of older persons living with family as they changed from one census to the next. Color intensities correspond to the frequency of persons aged 85 and over living with family, ranging from the lightest, which indicates low proportions (under 10%) to the darkest, indicating high proportions (over 35%). Zones of the same color intensity therefore have the same proportion of persons aged 85 and over living with family.

The maps illustrate the decline of such cohabitation over the censuses. In 1982, over 20% of persons aged 85 or older lived with family in 94 of metropolitan France’s 96 départements (the exceptions at the time were Paris and Mayenne). In 2011, the figure was over 20% in only 2 départements: Corsica and Gers.

Living with family in old age is a territory-specific practice or way of life, one particularly favored in Corsica, where proportions remain consistently high at around 28%. That way of life is also found more frequently than elsewhere in the départements of the southwest, which show over 15%. And it is twice to three times more frequent in Gers, Tarn-et-Garonne, Landes, Ariège, and Cantal than in many départements to the north, including Loir-et-Cher, Mayenne and Sarthe.

Recensement de la Population, Insee