Exploring the territorial unevenness of one-person households and contextual factors of vulnerability: Evidence from the Italian context

New family structures have emerged in Italy in recent decades, with a trend towards smaller nuclear families due to demographic, social and economic changes. An aging population, marital disruptions, declining fertility, and later marriages have contributed to this trend. It is important to understand the changing needs of families, especially the vulnerable, from both an economic and social perspective. Vulnerability is often related to economic factors, but people living alone are often at risk. The goal of this study is to classify Italian municipalities based on the prevailing characteristics of their one-person households, identifying areas of greater or lesser fragility. This classification constitutes a tool to plan people-based policies. Starting from the 2020 Italian Permanent Population and Housing Census data, a decision algorithm was used to identify municipalities according to the different types of their one-person households and to study their geographical distribution throughout the country. Our results show there is an unexpected heterogeneity that goes far beyond the classical North–South divide, emphasizing the urgency of approaching the study of economic and social processes at the local level.