Regional differences in living arrangements among the elderly in Ecuador

On the national level in Ecuador in 1982 roughly 61 percent of elderly people 60 years and over lived in complex family households, but this was 70 percent in the Coastal region (Costa) compared with only 54 percent in the Mountain region (Sierra), these two regions comprising over 95 percent of Ecuador's 1982 population. The regional difference could not be explained by standard demographic or socioeconomic characteristics available in the 1982 Census, either among all elderly people or unmarried women elderly. Rather, the regional difference may reflect underlying value and attitude differences not measured in the Census. As the marital structure of the adult population in the two areas has been quite different, consensual union being much more common in the Costa than the Sierra, we are left to wonder if there might be two different family systems at play. Such speculation will need to be addressed by future research.