Low-income widows and other aged singles

Based on data collected in a nationwide survey in late 1973, this report describes the living conditions, health, social activity, and attitudes of unmarried older persons at low to middle income levels--that is, below $5,000 per year. Although most previous research has focused on the special situation of widows, the current findings indicate that lower income widowers and divorced/separated/never-married persons generally experience many of the same problems as the widows and respond to them in a remarkably similar fashion. Old age without a spouse or adequate income seems to dictate the same material and social hardship regardless of whether the spouse was lost to death, divorce, or separation, or was never acquired in the first place.