Household and family characteristics: March 1986.

Abstract

This report presents an overview of some of the major trends evident since 1970 as well as detailed on the Current Population Survey's March supplement. A family household is defined as at least 2 people related through marriage, birth, or adoption. A nonfamily household contains 1 person living alone or living exclusively with persons not related to him or herself. Some highlights of topic discussed in this year's report follow. 1) There were an estimated 88.5 million households in the US as of March, 1986. The net average annual increase in households was lower for the 1980-1986 period (1.3 million) than it was for 1970-1980 (1.7 million). 2) About 72% of all households were family households. Married-couple families accounted for a about 58% of all family households. There were 8.9 million 1-parent family groups in 1986, versus 3.8 million in 1970. 3) 28% (24.9 million) of all households were nonfamily households in 1986 as compared to 19% in 1970. 85% (21.2 million) were composed of persons living alone; women accounted for about 2/3 of nonfamily householders living alone. 4) The median age of all family householders in 1986 was 44.1, about 1.5 years lower than in 1970. 5) Overall average family size was 3.21 persons in 1986, compared to 3.58 persons in 1970. The largest families, on average, were found among married couples in which the householders were in their late 30s or early 40s. 6) After a period of decline, the number of married-couple families with children in the home did not change significantly in 1986.