Skip to main content
Log in

American Indian household structure and income

  • Ethnicity and Race
  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

We use the 1980 Public-Use Microdata Sample to consider the relationship between household structure and economic well-being among American Indians. Wefocus on the total U.S. Indian population and on there sidents of 19 “Indian states” where there has been relatively little growth in the Indian population by means ofchanges in racial self-identification. Using Sweet’s (1984) scheme of household types, we find that the prevalence among Indians of female-headed households with children is intermediate between that among blacks and whites, but the prevalence of couple-headed households with children is highest among Indians. Racial differences in the distribution of household types and differences in average household size are important determinants of black-white and Indian-white differences in average household income.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bane, M. J. 1986. Household composition and poverty. Pp. 209–231 in S. Danziger and D. Weinberg (eds.), Fighting Poverty. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi, S. M. 1980. Racial differences in per capita income, 1960–1976: The importance of household size, headship, and labor force participation. Demography 17:129–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dobyns, H. F. 1983. Their Numbers Became Thinned. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, F. L., and J. Kelley. 1984. Decomposing differences between groups: A cautionary note on measuring discrimination. Sociological Methods and Research 12:323–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passel, J. S. 1976. Provisional evaluation of the 1970 census count of American Indians. Demography 13:397–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passel, J., and P. Berman. 1985. Quality of 1980CensusData for American Indians. Paper presented at the 1985 Annual Meetings of the American Statistical Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, August.

  • Sandefur, G. D. 1986. American Indian migration and economic opportunities. International Migration Review 20:55–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandefur, G. D., and T. McKinnell. 1986. American Indian intermarriage. Social Science Research 15:347–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandefur, G. D., and W. J. Scott. 1983. Minority group status and the wages of white, black and Indian males. Social Science Research 12:44–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sweet, J. 1984. Components of change in the number of households, 1970–1980. Demography 21:129–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, R. In press. As Snow Before the Summer Sun: The History of the Democratic Destruction and Survival of American Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

  • U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1983a. U.S. Census of the Population, 1980: General Population Characteristics, U.S. Summary, PC80-1-Bl. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1983b. U.S. Census of the Population, 1980: General Social and Economic Characteristics, U.S. Summary, Pe80-I-Cl. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sandefur, G.D., Sakamoto, A. American Indian household structure and income. Demography 25, 71–80 (1988). https://doi.org/10.2307/2061478

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2061478

Keywords

Navigation