NATION : Typical U.S. Family a Whit Over 2 1/2
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WASHINGTON — The typical American household, nearly six members strong when the nation was new, is down statistically to just over 2 1/2 people, a record low, the Census Bureau said today.
The decline reflects “changes in the age structure of the American population,” Census Bureau demographer Campbell Gibson said.
The household is shrinking as families have fewer children, more young people set up housekeeping on their own and the number of elderly maintaining their own households grows. There were 91.5 million households in the country as of last July 1, the bureau said, with an average population of 2.62 people each.
From 1980 to 1988, the total number of households increased 13.9%, while the population rose 8.5%.
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