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Data

Percentage of one-person households

About this data

Source
UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten (2021) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
November 15, 2019
Date range
1864–2018
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten – Share of one-person households

This is an OWID constructed dataset on the share of one-person households.

Estimates rely on data from multiple sources:

The UN database pulls from 4 different sources:

  1. Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS);
  2. the Demographic Yearbook (DYB) of the United Nations;
  3. IPUMS-International;
  4. Labor Force Surveys (LFS) of the European Union, Eurostat.

Where a country time series was composed of multiple sources, we favoured the source covering the most years. In cases where there was a tie between sources, we favoured the DYB, then IPUMS, DHS, and lastly LFS estimates. The DYB covered the largest number of countries and the LFS the least.

  • Data from the OECD was used to supplement the dataset for 2011, for countries where data from other sources were unavailable.
  • The time series for Germany was supplemented using the Deutschland in Daten dataset where West Germany refers to the German Federal Republic series and East Germany to the German Democratic Republic. See Rahlf, Thomas; Erker, Paul; Fertig, Georg; Rothenbacher, Franz; Oltmer, Jochen; Müller-Benedict, Volker; et al. (2015): German Time Series Dataset, 1834-2012. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1450809.v1

(NB. The source for each observation can be found in the metadata spreadsheet here)

Notes: The UN data included two observations for Tanzania in 2004 and two for Senegal in 2013. We favoured the observation produced later in the year to avoid under- or over-estimating the share of one-person households. The figures produced later in the year are a more sensible fit for their respective country series.

New Zealand in 1991 and 1996 uses the total number of households as the denominator. All other years use the total number of stated households. Stated households exclude cases where the household composition is unidentifiable and is used where possible.

Japan in 1960, 1970, and 1975 includes "group of six or more one-person live-in employees for business".

United States estimates in 1993 and 2011 are revised based on population from the most recent decennial census.

The OECD-32 average excludes Israel.

Retrieved on
November 15, 2019
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Our World in Data based on UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten (2021).

This is an OWID constructed dataset on the share of one-person households.

Estimates rely on data from multiple sources:

The UN database pulls from 4 different sources:

  1. Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS);
  2. the Demographic Yearbook (DYB) of the United Nations;
  3. IPUMS-International;
  4. Labor Force Surveys (LFS) of the European Union, Eurostat.

Where a country time series was composed of multiple sources, we favoured the source covering the most years. In cases where there was a tie between sources, we favoured the DYB, then IPUMS, DHS, and lastly LFS estimates. The DYB covered the largest number of countries and the LFS the least.

  • Data from the OECD was used to supplement the dataset for 2011, for countries where data from other sources were unavailable.
  • The time series for Germany was supplemented using the Deutschland in Daten dataset where West Germany refers to the German Federal Republic series and East Germany to the German Democratic Republic. See Rahlf, Thomas; Erker, Paul; Fertig, Georg; Rothenbacher, Franz; Oltmer, Jochen; Müller-Benedict, Volker; et al. (2015): German Time Series Dataset, 1834-2012. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1450809.v1

(NB. The source for each observation can be found in the metadata spreadsheet here)

Notes: The UN data included two observations for Tanzania in 2004 and two for Senegal in 2013. We favoured the observation produced later in the year to avoid under- or over-estimating the share of one-person households. The figures produced later in the year are a more sensible fit for their respective country series.

New Zealand in 1991 and 1996 uses the total number of households as the denominator. All other years use the total number of stated households. Stated households exclude cases where the household composition is unidentifiable and is used where possible.

Japan in 1960, 1970, and 1975 includes "group of six or more one-person live-in employees for business".

United States estimates in 1993 and 2011 are revised based on population from the most recent decennial census.

The OECD-32 average excludes Israel.

Retrieved on
November 15, 2019
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Our World in Data based on UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten (2021).

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

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  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Percentage of one-person households”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260512-085513/grapher/one-person-households.html [online resource] (archived on May 12, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten (2021) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten (2021) – processed by Our World in Data. “Percentage of one-person households” [dataset]. UN, national statistical agencies, OECD, and Deutschland in Daten, “Share of one-person households” [original data]. Retrieved May 12, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260512-085513/grapher/one-person-households.html (archived on May 12, 2026).

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