近來老年人與子女同住的比率下降，似乎顯示兩代的同居傾向下降；唯兩代同居傾向欲影響老年居住安排必須以「兩代並存」為前提，老年人與子女同居比率的下降可能是實質傾向的降低，也可能是無子女可供同居的老年人增加。無子女可供同居的老人增加乃因光復初期大陸來台軍人多已進入老年，而其中有一大部份終生未婚。本文首先利用行政院國軍退除役官兵輔導委員會統計資料，討論資深榮民人數的變化，及其對老年人居住安排所產生的影響。其次利用「老人狀況調查」資料，分析1986至1996年間已婚老人居住安排的變化情形。最後則使用行政院主計處的「婦女婚育與就業調查」以及台灣省家庭計劃研究所之「台灣地區老人保健及生活問題調查J'來討論晚近子女數量與同居傾向的變化。研究結果顯示，排除資深榮民的影響後，雖然老年人與子女同居比率因而上升，卻不影響老年居住安排的變遷趨勢。而1980年以來老年人的子女數量無顯著變化，標準化年齡與婚姻組成之後，與子女同居的比率仍然下降，顯示實質的同居傾向確有降低的趨勢;不過其降幅僅一成左右，對有子女的老人而言，與子女同居仍占六成以上。

While the elderly living alone with/without the spouse present is becoming a phenomenon in Taiwan, this paper examines the living arrangement of the elderly systematically. It is found that though the proportion of elderly living with their children has declined during the past two decades, most of the decrease can be attributed to the increase in the proportion of elderly living only with the spouse. The remnant of this increase in the proportion of elderly living alone can be attributed to the aging and retiring of the more than 600,000 soldiers brought to Taiwan after the nationalists retreated from the Mainland China in 1949. There are roughly 400,000 veterans of age 65 and plus on 1996 and 21 % of them have remained unmarried. We found that counting only the ever-married, 9.02% of the elderly live in solitude in 1996 as compared to 12.01% counting all the elderly. Consequently 67.40% of the ever-married elderly live with the children while 64.49% of all the elderly live with the children in 1996. Focusing on the ever-married elderly, we found the decrease in proportion living with the children replaced by the increase in proportion living with only the spouse. It is also possibly related to the decreased propensity to live with the children, due to the socioeconomic changes generalized as a process of modernization. It should be noted, however that living with the children remains the predominant type of living arrangement among the ever-married elderly in 1996.