e, especially in a nation as heterogeneous as the United States, where the characteristics of families vary dramatically by race and ethnicity; education, age, and income of the adult members of the family; religious affiliation; region of the country; and by the interplay of these and other demographic, social, and economic factors. Among the most visible changes noted in the family in this century are the following:
--Today, relatively fewer people live in family households, and particularly in "traditional" nuclear families, than was the case earlier in the century. The trend toward living in nonfamily households (usually alone) has been associated with widowhood at older ages, the increased incidence of divorce among adults of all ages, and delayed marriage among young adults.
--Women in the United States are bearing fewer children during their lives, and they are doing so later in their reproductive years, than was true in the past. As a result, the average size of families today is smaller than it has ever been before.
--Those who live in family households still a very substantial majority of the population live in less stable, more
heterogeneous families than did earlier generations, and kinship networks today often include former spouses and former in laws, stepchildren, and, with increased life expectancy, more
--Economic roles within the family have shifted significantly in the post World War II years, and regardless of the presence of children, including infants, wives now are more likely to work outside the home than to work solely as homemakers.
A number of long-term trends can also be discerned in the data. The number of households in the United States grew rather steadily from 20.3 million in 1910 to 43.6 million in 1950, and to 92.8 million in 1989. The total number of married couples more than doubled from 17.2 million in 1910 to 34.1 million in 1950, and then rose much more slowly than ...