360Digest

NWREporter December 2005

Solo households now outnumber couples with children – a demographic fact with major implications for REALTORS® and homebuilders.

According to “Examining American Household Composition 1990 and 2000,” a Census 2000 special report, solo households grew 21 percent over the past decade, while the next most prevalent category, married couples without children, grew by only 11 percent.

Of households in the 2000 and 1990 surveys, the 2000 Census shows the following compositions:

HOUSEHOLD TYPE 1990 (%)
2000 (%)

Households with neither a partner nor children
29.6
31.6

Households with a partner and children
34.3
31.3

Households with a partner but without children
25.4
25.6

Households with children but without a partner
10.7
11.5

“It’s breathtaking how many people still think that the ‘mom, pop and two kids’ is the majority of households,” said Peter Francese, the founder of American Demographics magazine who has studied U.S. demographic trends for 35 years. He expects single-adult households will continue to grow, noting the category may total 34 million by the 2010 census.

The “household compositions” report, published in August, is the first to divide homes by whether they have partners of any sort, regardless of marital status.

Among the findings census officials report:

In Census 2000, 273.6 million of the 281.4 million people in the survey lived in 105.5 million households. The remaining 7.8 million people lived in group quarters, such as correctional institutions, nursing homes and college dormitories.
Using 21 relationship codes, researchers found 786,000 possible household combinations, underscoring a growing complexity of the demographics within the U.S. population. (Of these possibilities, the maximum number of nonfamily combinations is 32.)
Nine specific combinations, each with one million or more households, accounted for 86 percent of all U.S. households.
Multigenerational households increased by 38 percent, from 3.0 million in 1990, to 4.2 million in 2000.
41 percent of households included people from two generations, such as a child or a grandparent, and 3.9 percent of households had three generations.
The number of households reporting an unmarried partner rose by 72% from 1990 to 2000. (Commenting on the jump, U.S. census demographer Bill Hobbes said it cannot be determined from the figures whether it reflects an increase in committed unmarried relationships or an increased willingness to admit to a partner’s presence.)
For builders, the changing demographics are significant, according to Michael Carline, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders. He suggests unmarried people probably no longer view living alone as a transitional arrangement (to a marital household). “That makes them more likely to buy a house,” he concludes.

For builders, Carline suggests the growth in solo households means a bigger market for homes with less privacy, fewer rooms, and reduced square footage, but “more Jacuzzis.” Singles place a greater priority on being close to the action, he remarked, adding, “They are not worried about school districts or space, so they put a higher priority to being close in. That’s been a factor in boosting demand for urban or close-in suburban housing,” he remarked.
The analysis of 2000 census data shows twenty most common relationships account for about 92 percent of all households:

Most Common Household Relationship Combinations: 2000

Rank
Household composition
Number of households
Percent

ALL HOUSEHOLDS
(24,722 combinations)

105,480,101

100.00

Total, 20 most common relationship combinations
96,764,872
91.74

1
Living alone
27,230,075
25.82

Householder living with: 69,534,797
65.92

2
Spouse + natural child
23,664,727
22.44

3
Spouse
22,382,944
21.22

4
Natural child
8,865,883
8.41

5
Unmarried partner
2,682,247
2.54