Older people have been shown to be particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Over 80% of deaths registered up to 26 June 2020 that mention COVID-19 on the death certificate in England and Wales relate to someone aged 70 years or over according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.
Most people in the UK that fall within the over 70 years age group live alone (44%) or with just one other person (47%), the majority of whom are another adult aged 50 years or over.
However, a small proportion of the population in this age group live as part of a larger household with a mix of ages, and this is more common among people from certain ethnic groups.
People aged 70 years or over of Bangladeshi or Pakistani ethnicity are more likely to live with those from a range of ages compared with people of white ethnicity of the same age group.
Three-quarters of households containing someone aged 70 years or over whose ethnicity is White are either single-person households or only have people aged 70 years or over within them.
This compares with around a quarter of households that have at least one person aged 70 years or over whose ethnic group is Bangladeshi. Just over half of these households contain more than one generation living together with at least one person aged 0 to 19 years, one person aged 20 to 69 years and one person aged 70 years or over.
Older people living in households with younger adults and children may be more exposed to COVID-19, as these younger people go out to work or return to school.
The figures also show that there is some evidence that infection rates for coronavirus are lower in two-person households than in larger households.
You can read more about these figures by following this link.
