Synonyms
Definition
The term household refers to all individuals who live in the same dwelling, who may or may not be related by blood or marriage kinship, and is distinct from the less inclusive notion of family. The household composition is determined by the people who live together in a housing unit, and by their relationships to one another.
Description
The household is the main basic unit of analysis in many demographic, social, microeconomic, and government models, since it represents the basic residential unit in which consumption, child rearing, shelter, and inheritance are organized and carried out.
A household, or more precisely a privatehousehold, consists of all the people who occupy a housing unit, who may or may not be related by blood or marriage kinship. A household may thus be distinct from the less inclusive notion of family. Traditionally, a family (or a family nucleus) is constituted by two persons (of either sex) who choose to...
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References
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Pirani, E., Tocchioni, V. (2021). Household Composition. In: Maggino, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_1319-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_1319-2
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