Household and Family Structure

The average size of U.S. households has been declining for decades, but new Census data may show a reversal of that trend.

Senior research staff answer questions from readers relating to all the areas covered by our seven projects, ranging from polling techniques and findings, to media, technology, religious, demographic and global attitudes trends.

More than 2,000 demographers, sociologists and others converged on Washington, D.C., last week for the Population Association of America’s annual meeting.

Researchers recently presented some findings that dispute the popular (or academic) wisdom about important aspects of family life and bear upon relevant findings from Pew Research surveys.

This statistical profile of the foreign-born population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey.

The American public is sharply divided in its judgments about the sweeping changes in the structure of the American family that have unfolded over the past half century. About a third generally accepts the changes; a third is tolerant but skeptical; and a third considers them bad for society.

Today, more than four-in-ten American adults have at least one step relative in their family – either a stepparent, a step or half sibling or a stepchild.

A report from the center's Social & Demographic Trends project, "The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families," finds that nearly four-in-ten Americans (39%) say that marriage is becoming obsolete.

The pre-eminent family unit of the mid-20th century—mom, dad and the kids—no longer has the stage to itself. A variety of new arrangements have emerged, giving rise to a broader and evolving definition of what constitutes a family.

Among Europeans ages 25-34, nearly one-in-three men and one-in-five women lived with at least one of their parents in 2008, according to a recent report from the European Commission.