Saturday, December 28, 2002
U.S. population: 100 years of change
A report released today by the Census Bureau reveals that at the start of the 20th century, most of the U.S. population was male, under 23 years old, lived outside metropolitan areas and rented their homes. Nearly half lived in a household with five or more other persons.
One hundred years later, most of the population was female, at least 35 years old, lived in metro areas and owned their homes. Most lived alone or in a household with one or two other people.
The Census Bureau special report released today focuses on data gathered in 11 censuses stretching from 1900 to 2000. The subjects covered are from the Census 2000 short-form questionnaire. Titled Demographic Trends in the 20th Century and released during the bureau's 100th anniversary year, the report tracks trends in population, housing and household data for the nation, regions and states.
Some highlights of the report:
- In 1950, for the first time, more than half of all occupied housing units were owned instead of rented. The homeownership rate increased until 1980, decreased slightly in the 1980s and then rose again to its highest level of the century in 2000 66 percent.
- Between 1950 and 2000, married-couple households declined from more than three-fourths of all households to just over one-half.
- The proportional share of one-person households increased more than households of any other size. In 1950, one-person households represented 1-in-10 households; by 2000, they comprised 1-in-4.
Excerpts from the report (from pages 140-142 of report):
http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdfMarried-couple households declined from more than 3 out of every 4 households (78 percent) in 1950 to just over one-half (52 percent) in 2000.
Households may be classified as either family households or non-family households. Within family households, married-couple households represent the most common type. Within nonfamily households, one person households (people living alone) represent the most common type.56 All types of households increased numerically between each census 1950 to 2000 (see Figure 5-8).The largest decadal increase in the number of households for 3 of the 4 major household types (all except married-couple households) occurred in the 1970s.The largest numerical increase of married-couple households occurred in the 1950s.
Although married-couple households remain the most common type of household, one-person households increased more than any other type during the 50-year period. Of the total increase of 63 million households, one-person households accounted for 23 million, married couples for 21 million, other family households or 13 million, and other nonfamily households for 6 million.
During each decade from 1950 to 2000, one of the nonfamily household types grew fastest. Other nonfamily households had the highest percentage increase every decade except for the 1960s, when
one-person households grew fastest. Conversely, one of the family household types grew the slowest each decade. Married-couple households increased by the lowest percentage each decade except for the 1950s, when other family households grew the slowest.
While all household types increased numerically from decade to decade, the slower increase of married-couple households resulted in a continual shrinking of the proportion of all U.S. households represented by married-couple households (see Figure 5-9). Between 1950 and 2000, married-couple households declined from more than 3 out of every 4 households (78 percent) to just over one half (52 percent) of all households.
Other family households declined as a proportion of all households in the 1950s, but increased every decade thereafter. By 2000, other family households represented about 1 of every 6 U.S. households (16 percent).
The shares of all U.S. households represented by both types of nonfamily households increased every
decade during the period 1950 to 2000. The proportional share of one-person households increased more than any other type. In 1950, one-person households represented about 1 of every 10 households (9.5 percent).
By 2000, one-person households comprised 1out of every 4 households (26 percent). The proportional share of other nonfamily households also increased every decade. In 1950, other non-family households represented only 1.1 percent of households in the United States. By 2000, this category still represented the smallest share of the major household types, but it had increased to 6.1 percent of all U.S. households.
All regions had increasing proportions of one-person households, reaching around one-fourt of all households in 2000.
As noted previously, the proportional share of all U.S.households represented by one-person households increased more than any other major household type, comprising one-fourth of all U.S. households (26 percent)by 2000. Similar regional trends occurred over the decades, with one-person households also representing about one-fourth of the households in each region by the end of the century (see Figure 5-10 and Appendix Table 14).
During the century, the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South all had similar proportions and patterns of growth of one-person households. The West also had an increasing proportion of one-person households 1900 to 2000, but its levels and pattern of change followed the most distinct trend of the regions.
In 1900, the West’s proportion of one-person households (13 percent) far exceeded the proportions of the other regions, and it maintained the highest proportion of one-person households for each census, 1940 to 1970. Since 1980, the Northeast ranked 1st among the regions in the proportion of one-person households.
The gap between the regions with the highest and the lowest proportion of one-person households narrowed with each census from 1900 to 1990, then became slightly wider in the 1990s. Differences between the Northeast’s, the Midwest’s, and the South’s proportions of one-person households remained within a narrow range throughout the century, from 0.9 percentage points in 1900 to a maximum of 2.4 percentage points in 1970.
Although the West held the highest regional proportion of one-person households through 1970, the gap narrowed as every other region’s increase in their proportion of one-person households exceeded the West’s increase. By 1990 and again in 2000, the West had the smallest proportion of one-person households among the regions.
No state had at least 20 percent one-person households in 1940, but all states except Utah exceeded this level in 2000.
The major growth in the proportion of one-person households occurred in the second half of the century.
Data available from the population census of 1900 show that one-person households constituted at least 10 percent of all households in only 11 states, 10 western states, plus North Dakota (see Appendix Table14). Although data are not available from the 1910 through 1930 censuses, data from the first census of housing in 1940 show the number of states with at least 10 percent one-person households remained essentially unchanged: Nevada, Montana, Washington, California, Oregon, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho (just nine states). All of them had been among the 11 with at least 10 percent one-person households in 1900, and all were in the West. Of the 11 states with at least 10 percent one-person households in 1900, New Mexico’s and North Dakota’s proportions declined below 10 percent by 1940 (to 8.4 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively). The proportion of one-person households increased in 34 states and the District of Columbia between 1900 and 1940 and declined in 14 states.
No state had at least 20 percent one-person households in 1940. The only states with at least 15 percent one-person households in 1940 were Nevada (18 percent) and Montana (15 percent, see Figure 5-11).
While little growth occurred in the proportions of one-person households in the first 40 years of the century, 30 years later, one-person households comprised at least 10 percent of the total number of households in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Most states in1970 had proportions of one-person households ranging between 15 percent and 20 percent of all households.
Only California, the District of Columbia, and New York had at least 20 percent one-person households.
All 11 states with less than 15 percent one-person households were either in the South or the West.
The proportion of one-person households was higher in every state in 1970 than in 1940. Of the 48 states in 1940, the proportions of one-person households in the states with the 10 highest proportions increased but did not double. However, in 35 of the remaining 38 states (all except New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Utah), the proportion of one-person households more than doubled from 1940 to 1970.
Between 1970 and 2000, the proportions of one-person households again increased in every state and the District of Columbia. While no state’s proportion of one-person households doubled from 1970 to 2000, one-person households represented at least 20 percent of all households in 49 of the 50 states by the end of the century, when only Utah (18 percent) had less than 20 percent one-person households.
In 2000, one-person households represented at least 25 percent of all households in 36 of the 50 states, where the proportion ranged narrowly from 25.0 percent to 29.3 percent, led by North Dakota. The next highest-ranking states in percentage one-person households were all in the Northeast—Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. 57Among the 14 states with the lowest percentage (less than 25 percent) one-person households in 2000, four of these states—Nevada, California, Arizona, and Idaho—had ranked among the 10 states with the highest
percentage one-person households in 1900 and1940. Nevada and California also had ranked among the states with the 10 highest percentage one-person households as recently as 1980.
57 One-person households represented 44 percent of all households in the District of Columbia in 2000.
The number of one-person households increased every census, 1960 to 2000, for men, women, younger householders, and older householders.
From 1960 to 2000, the number of one-person households increased for both male and female householders and for householders both under age 65 and age 65 and over. Between 1960 and 2000, the number of men under age 65 living alone increased by 7.6 million, women under age 65 living alone by 5.7 million, men age 65 and over living alone by 1.5 million, and women age 65 and over living alone by 5.3 million (see Figure 5-12).
Of the four age-sex groups shown in Figure 5-12, the number of women age 65 and over living alone increased more than any other group in the 1960s, but the number of men under age 65 living alone increased the most for each decade thereafter.
The largest decadal increase in the number of one-person households for each group occurred in the 1970s, with the exception of men age 65 and over, whoincreased the most in the 1990s. The number of men under age 65 living alone more than doubled in the 1970s, the highest proportional increase in any decade during the period among the four groups considered.
In part, the increases in one-person households in the1970s coincide with the influx of the baby-boom generation into new households and increasing levels of divorce. Increases for women age 65 and over living alone throughout the period 1960 to 2000 suggest that growing numbers of women in this age group are living alone as a result of widowhood.
In 1960, more women under age 65 lived alone than did any of the other groups. In 1970, women age 65 and over living alone outnumbered people living alone in the other groups. In each census, 1980 to 2000, men under age 65 represented the age and sex group with the most one-person households. Men age 65and over had both the fewest one-person households and the least increase in one-person households each census, 1960 to 2000.
From 1970 to 2000, men under age 65 living alone increased their share of the total number of one-person households (see Figure 5-13). From 1960 to1990, the proportion of one-person households composed of women under age 65 decreased.
Over the period 1960 to 2000, women under age 65and men age 65 and over had their largest proportional shares of one-person households in 1960; women 65 and over in 1970, and men under age 65 in 2000.
Although both men and women householders under age 65 represented sizable proportions of all one-person households, these proportions were much less than these age groups’ share of the total population.
For example, while men under age 65 represented a range of 25 percent to 34 percent of all one-person households over the years 1960 to 2000, this age group represented 44 percent to 45 percent of the population during this same period. Similarly, women under age 65 represented from 29 percent to 34 percent of one-person households, but 44 percent to 46 percent of the population.
In contrast, men, and especially women, age 65 and over represented proportionally larger shares of oneperson households than they did of the total population.
From 1960 to 2000, men age 65 and over represented just 4 percent to 5 percent of the total population, but a range of 8 percent to 12 percent of all one-person households. Women age 65 and over represented just 5 percent to 8 percent of the total population during this period, but a disproportionately higher range (27 percent to 33 percent) of the total number of one-person households.
Older female householders were far more likely to live alone than younger female householders and than younger and older male householders.
Older female householders had a much greater likelihood of living alone than did younger female householders or male householders, regardless of age (see Figure 5-14). In every census from 1970 to 2000, between 73 to 77 percent of all female householders age 65 and over lived alone.
Younger female householders were also more likely to live alone than both younger male householders and older male householders. In 1960 and 1970, 40 percent and 41 percent, respectively, of all female householders under age 65 lived alone, however, this proportion declined each census after 1970 to 29 percent in 2000.
From 1960 to 2000, the proportion of all male householders under age 65 living alone increased each census, from 4.7 percent to 16.9 percent, but this group was the least likely to be living alone. This fact derives from the very high proportion of men who are identified as the householder among married-couple households.
The proportion of all male householders age 65 and over living alone also generally increased during the period 1960 to 2000, with a slight decline occurring in the 1970s. A higher proportion of male householders age 65 and over lived alone than male householders under age 65 at each census during the period, although the gap between these two groups reached its narrowest point at the end of the century. By 2000,1 out of every 5 male householders age 65 and over lived alone.
The generally declining proportions of female householders under age 65 who lived alone, combined with increasing proportions of both under-65 and 65-andover male householders who lived alone, reduced the gap between these three groups to its narrowest point by 2000. However, the gap between the proportion of women householders under age 65 and those age 65 and over who lived alone widened, except in the1990s.
