Overview

The relationship between age and residential location has attracted little recent research despite a growing concern that social and spatial separation of extra-familial generations may threaten social cohesion. This study uses harmonised small area data from the censuses of England and Wales to investigate changes in the residential segregation of older and younger adults in Britain over the period 1991 to 2011. It examines the residential patterns of different adult age groups for neighbourhoods across the country, and for neighbourhoods within local authority areas, to determine whether, and where, residential age segregation is increasing.
The findings will contribute to understanding both the processes of segregation by age and the implications for a range of policy issues.

Key Research Questions:
1. Has the residential segregation of older relative to younger adults increased in recent decades and, if so, to what extent?

2. Have particular places or types of neighbourhood experienced more residential age segregation than others?

3. What are the main processes underlying residential age segregation and what are the implications of the findings?
Findings to date reveal increasing residential segregation by age across neighbourhoods in England and Wales, although not every district is equally affected. Age segregation tends to be higher in more rural areas, but there is also evidence of convergent clusters of segregation in urban settings, especially in former industrial areas in the North of England.