The evolution of retirement living
The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey shows that living circumstances in retirement have changed over time, but social connections are generally strong
Published 19 September 2025
The evolution of retirement living
What does a typical retirement household look like in 2023 compared with 2003?
Consistently, the HILDA Survey has found that about 50 per cent of people who are retired live as a couple.
But there is a small but statistically significant rise in the proportion of retired people living alone – from 20 per cent in 2003 to 24 per cent in 2023.
This is more than double the national average, with only about 10.8 per cent of all Australians living alone in 2023.
The increase in single-person households among retirees is likely due the increasing rate of divorce and widowhood amongst older Australians.
The next biggest group are single-parent households, which have stayed steady at around eight per cent of retirees over the 20-year survey period.
But the biggest change in living arrangements is the decline in the proportion of people living in a couple household with children – which has dropped from 19.2 per cent in 2003 to 11.9 per cent in 2023.
This drop is driven by a reduction in both retirees living with non-dependent children (from 12.7 to 8.7 per cent) and couples with dependent children (from 5.7 to 2.5 per cent).
This is likely a result of declining fertility rates over time.
There’s a growing number of retirees living in the ‘other household type’ category (up from 4.0 to 6.4 per cent from 2003-2023).
This can include group households (share house living), multiple-family households and people living with other family members like siblings or parents.
For that 24 per cent and rising population of retirees living alone, loneliness is an ever-present risk.
That said, the HILDA report also shows that people aged 65 and over are among the groups that socialise the most with friends and relatives outside the household.
Around 55 per cent socialise at least once a week.
In this group, 30.2 per cent socialise about once a week, 21.7 per cent socialise several times a week – and a busy 3.3 per cent socialise every day.
This is the second-highest socialising frequency group after young people aged 15 to 24 years, where 64.7 per cent socialise at least once per week.
In contrast, the proportion of people who socialise less than once per month is relatively low among people aged 65 and over, at 14.3 per cent.
If we look at the 45-54 age group, 20.4 per cent socialise less than once per month, and in the 15-24 age group, it's 11 per cent.
Women aged 65 and older also report a greater perceived number of friends than any other age bracket, and men aged 65 and over still have the third-highest perceived number of friends after those aged 15 to 24 and those aged 25 to 34 years.
These kinds of friendship networks are fundamental to maintaining high levels of well-being.
People who say they have many friends report higher levels of emotional and instrumental support, lower levels of loneliness and better mental health.
The 20th Annual Statistical Report of the HILDA Survey lead author is Dr Inga Laß, with co-authors Dr Kyle Peyton, Professor Roger Wilkins and Dr Ferdi Botha.
The HILDA survey is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne, and is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Social Services.