Components of change in the number of households: 1970–1980

Abstract

There was an increase from 62.8 to 79.1 million households in the United States during the 1970s. The number of households increased much more rapidly than the population. This paper decomposes this growth in the number of households into components associated with changing age and martial status composition and changing age by marital status-specific propensities to form households. About one-third of the increase in the number of households was due to increased age by marital status propensity to form households, and two-thirds was due to shifts in the age by marital status distribution and population growth. The increased propensity to form households had its major impact at ages under 35, and primarily among never-married persons. The composition component had its primary impact at ages 25-44 as a result of the baby boom, and also because of the increased fractions never married and separated and divorced.

Impacts of Demographic Trends on US Household Size and Structure

“…A number of studies, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, investigated the demographic determinants of past household changes in the United States (Burch 1970;Burch and Matthews 1987;Carliner 1975;Errnisch and Overton 1985;Kobrin 1973Kobrin , 1976Richards, White, and Tsui 1987;Santi 1987Santi , 1988Sweet 1984;Teachman 1982;Watkins, Menken, and Bongaarts 1987;White and Tsui 1986 ). While each is informative, most focus only on the determinants of a certain household type (e.g.…”

Central cities and housing supply: Growth and decline in US cities

“…Most changes in central city boundaries occurred prior to the 1970s; central city-suburb boundaries were quite stable between 1970 and 2000.3 This compared to declines of À5.7% in the 1960s, À4.7% in the 1980s, and À1.4% in the 1990s Sweet (1984). lists six reasons for the 1970sÕ unprecedented decline: (1) young people increasingly delayed marriage; (2) rates of separation and divorce increased; (3) remarriage rates began to stabilize and decline after a period of increase; (4) mortality of the elderly declined; (5) persons of all ages and marital statuses continued their increased propensities to form their own households rather than to share the households of others; and (6) large baby boom cohorts replaced the very small Depression cohorts so that in 1980 there were 39% more20-34-year-olds than in 1970.…”

“…lists six reasons for the 1970sÕ unprecedented decline: (1) young people increasingly delayed marriage; (2) rates of separation and divorce increased; (3) remarriage rates began to stabilize and decline after a period of increase; (4) mortality of the elderly declined; (5) persons of all ages and marital statuses continued their increased propensities to form their own households rather than to share the households of others; and (6) large baby boom cohorts replaced the very small Depression cohorts so that in 1980 there were 39% more20-34-year-olds than in 1970. 4 Demographers such asSweet (1984) have analyzed household size for the nation as a whole, but onlyBerry (1980) addressed impacts of household size on central cities, and his work was largely descriptive.…”

Toward a New Model for Probabilistic Household Forecasts

“…Each age-and sex-specific headship rate would need its own forecast, particularly since changes in rates can vary strongly across groups. For example, headship rates changed the most in the older age group, particularly among women, between 1940 and 1980 in the U.S. (Kobrin 1973;Carliner 1975;Sweet 1984).…”