A Demographic Analysis of Family Households in China, 1982-1995

Abstract

Analysis based on censuses and mini-census data shows that while the nuclear family household was the mainstream in China in the 1990s, extended family households with 3+ generations also constituted a substantive proportion: 19.4% and 18.3% in 1995 and 1990, respectively. A large majority of elderly men (69%) and women (75%) lived with their children. As compared with the early 1980s, in the 199.0s, the number of one-person households decreased; the number of 3+ generation extended family households increased; the proportion of elderly persons living alone decreased; living with spouse and children increased. Explanations to interpret this phenomenon, which is contradictory to theoretical expectations, are given. We believe that family structures in China in the 1990s were not more traditional than those in the early 1980s were; the traditional norm regarding family structure and living arrangement of the elderly changed little, if at all, between 1982 and 1995. Previous expectations that Chinese families might give way to the Western pattern have not been met.