Retirement possibilities in nineteenth-century Iceland were largely restricted to residing within the household of an offspring. Using evidence extracted from the national census of 1901 we attempt to evaluate the importance which the availability of offspring played the household position of elderly married women and widows. The results indicate that women who were forced to give up headship without the possibility of retirement within the household of an offspring had on average fewer children alive than those who managed to exchange headship for residence within the home of a married child. However, married women tended to retain headship long past the age of 60, whereas the loss of a spouse usually resulted in changes in household position. We find that there existed a closer correlation between the number of surviving children and the household position of widows than was the case as regards married women.
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