Living alone trend

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 12

Living alone trend

The size of the American household has declined sharply since 1970 because large numbers of people are living alone, and there are fewer children per family, according to 1980 census figures published in the “New York Times.” From 1970 to 1980, the Census Bureau announced, the average number of people per household declined from 3.11 to 2.75, while. the total number of households increased bv 27 per cent,-to 80,376,609. ' The figures released this week< document another chapter in the changes that have taken place, in the wax' Americans live. The increase in households, along with the increase in housing units, suggest? that whatever Amcricans may feel about their material achievements, most have been able to find housing to accommodate their new life styles.- '• - = Many central- cities, once

noted for crowded tenements, now have smaller households than the suburbs. Manhattan, where housing is at a premium, had an average household size of only 1.96 in April last year, when the census was taken. In 1930, when families xvere larger and aging rela- . fives were more likely to> be cared for at home than they are now, the average size of the households nationally ..was 4.11. It has been declining ever since, but the largest percentage decline was ..during the 1970’5, when adults began living alone in record numbers. ' ■ . .• Daniel B. Devine, acting director of the Census Bureau, says,the sharp decline in the size of households is one reason the agency is widely accused of under-, counting the urban populations. 1 - ’ Public officials counted the number of occupied housing units, found xnora than

existed in 1970 and concluded that the number of residents increased. But frequently there had been a decline. Census officials were surprised by the number of single people living in units that had once accommodated families. The bureau defines a household as including all persons who occupy a group of rooms or a single room constituting a housing unit, in which occupants live in each unit separately from other persons who may be in the building l and have direct access from ■ the outside or through a common hall. . ,The count of April 1980 showed 220.8 M people living in,.Bo.4M’households.

But not everyone lives in a household. Andher 5.7 M people < were living in group quarters — custodial institutions,’ college dormitories, military barracks, monasteries, prisons,, and other facilities.—NZP A, Washington.