“One size does not fit all”: Spatial nonstationarity in the determinants of elderly residential isolation in historical Europe

The extent of elderly residential isolation from kin varied considerably between European historical societies, but few attempts have been made to understand these patterns systematically across space. So far, large‐scale accounts of factors underlying these patterns have calibrated a global model based on a single regression equation, thus implicitly assuming that the relationships between elderly living arrangements and their correlates are spatially constant. Drawing on insights from quantitative geography, we hypothesise that the relationships between living arrangements and meso‐level characteristics varied significantly over space provoking different responses to the same stimuli at different locations. We confirm this hypothesis by applying geographically weighted regression to data on 277 regional populations across historical Europe and demonstrating that these relationships were indeed spatially contingent. Our bottom line results suggest that in historic Europe, there were regions distinct not only in terms of the magnitude of living without kin but also with respect to the underlying determinants of levels of residential isolation.