About
Column
About this dashboard
- Title: Households in Austria
- Number: 2/2020
- Date: March 25, 2020
- Author: HFCS Team, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB)
- Data: HFCS Austria 2017
What we do
- This dashboard is the third in our series of Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) dashboards.
- Each dashboard is designed to provide concise information on a specific topic.
- All information displayed - be it figures, tables or text - is based on HFCS data.
Who we are
- We are the HFCS Team of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB).
- As such, we are tasked with collecting and analyzing data on Austrian households’ finances and consumption.
- For more information on the HFCS in Austria, visit our website for the HFCS Austria.
- For general information on the Eurosystem’s HFCS, visit the website of the ECB’s Household Finance and Consumption Network (HFCN).
How to contact us
- If you have any questions ask us using our contact tool.
Find out more by clicking on the Question tab!
QuestionQuestion
Column
Question
How do Austrians live?
Why this topic now?
- To fight the transmission of the coronavirus (COVID-19), many people have to spend much more time at home than they are used to.
- If someone in a household is infected/has tested positive for coronavirus, transmission to other household members is likely. It is therefore important to have information on household size and structure - especially in terms of age.
- To understand what social distancing means for different people, it is important to know how they live. Some may be lonely, while others may not have enough space.
- By making visible the socioeconomic differences among people, we can better identify the different needs different people have.
- This dashboard might inspire you to think about the household structure of other people and might help you better understand the situation they are in.
Main Definitions
- Household: All persons living together in one dwelling and sharing resources.
- Household member: One of these persons. People living in institutionalized households, such as in homes for the elderly or monasteries, are not included in our analysis.
- Dependent children: All persons aged 0-15 and persons aged 16-24 who are economically inactive and living with at least one parent.
- Main residence: Dwelling the household lives in, regardless of whether it is officially registered as a main residence or not.
- Income: Net household income including all forms of income, such as labor income, capital income or transfers.
Main background facts for Austria
- The typical household in Austria is not composed of two adults and two children, but rather of a single person.
- Despite a wide variety of household structures, more than 70% of households are one-person or two-person households.
- The elderly live mostly in such one or two person households.
- Multigenerational households including both elderly people and children are scarce in Austria. Elderly persons rarely live in the same household with children.
- In cities, households tend to be smaller.
- The living space available to individuals within their homes varies largely and decreases with household size.
- Renters have much less living space than owners.
For detailed information on the methodology, please refer to the methodological notes and the results for Austria.
Find out more by cklicking on the Answer tab!
AnswerColumn
1 person household
2 person household
3 person household
Answer
How many people live together in a household?
Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.
We first take a look at the size of households: How many members do households have?
The chart shows 100 rectangles. Every rectangle represents 1% of Austrian households and therefore approximately 39,000 households of the approximately 3.9 million households in Austria.
Almost 40% of Austrian households consist of only one person, and less than 30% consist of more than two persons.
Less than 6% of Austrian households consist of five or more persons.
Where do the children live?
Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.
To answer this question, we used a rather broad definition of children: We included all persons aged 0-15 and persons aged 16-24 who are economically inactive and living with at least one parent.
Again, the chart shows 100 rectangles. Every rectangle represents 1% of Austrian households and therefore approximately 39,000 households of the approximately 3.9 million households in Austria.
Altogether, less than one-quarter of households has children.
About 14% of the households with children (3.4% of all households) are single-parent households.
Of the households with children, most consist of the parents (both living in the household) and one or two children.
The share of households in which three or more adults live together with dependent children is rather small, corresponding to a mere 3.6%.
More than three out of four households do not have any children, and almost half of these households are single households consisting of only one person (living alone).
Where do these households live and how old are they?
| Household type | % of households | % of households with children aged 14 and younger |
|---|---|---|
| One adult (younger than 65) | 21.2 | 0.0 |
| 2 Adults (younger than 65) | 18.3 | 0.0 |
| One adult (65+) | 15.9 | 0.0 |
| 2 Adults (at least one 65+) | 14.5 | 0.0 |
| 2 Adults, 1 child | 7.4 | 68.4 |
| 2 Adults, 2 children | 7.1 | 81.0 |
| 3+ Adults | 5.6 | 0.0 |
| 3+ Adults with children | 3.6 | 52.7 |
| Single parent | 3.4 | 55.4 |
| 2 Adults, 3+ children | 3.0 | 95.9 |
Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.
The map shows the average household size across Austrian provinces.
If you hover over the individual provinces, a tooltip will appear showing the structure of households by taking into account the age and number of household members.
Below the map, you will find a table which shows the numbers for Austria as a whole. Additionally, the table indicates the share of households with children aged 14 and younger for each household type
You can see from the numbers that elderly persons rarely live in the same household with children.
In what type of dwelling do they live?
Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.
The bar chart shows the type of dwelling different households live in.
Individual single family houses are most common among larger households with children. Most of these houses have access to a private garden. Single parents, on the contrary, mostly live in apartments.
There is also a fair amount of one-person (and two-person) households who live in individual single family houses.
A sizeable proportion of households lives in apartments. Commonly, these apartments do not have a private garden.
How much living space do people have at their dwelling?
Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.
The ridge chart shows the living space in square meters per household member and by household type. It differentiates between households who own their dwelling (or use it for free) and households who rent their dwelling
Larger households with children as well as single parents clearly have less space per household member.
Within all the household types, the households who rent their dwelling clearly have less space than those who own it.
Which households live in more densily populated areas?
Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.
The bar chart shows which household types live in more densely populated areas
Single parents and households with one or two persons are most likely to live in densely populated areas.
How is the condition of their dwelling?
Source: HFCS Austria 2017, OeNB.
As part of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), interviewers also provide us with their assessment of the condition and the quality of the location of the dwelling the households interviewed live in.
The chart clearly shows that bad ratings are concentrated at the bottom of the income distribution. This pattern is confirmed if we use wealth distribution instead of income distribution data.
The interviewers’ ratings refer to the following: (i) condition of the dwelling’s interior: at least some repairs and renovations clearly needed; (ii) condition of the building: at least major renovations needed; and (iii) geographical location: maximum not particularly good