Multigenerational Family Households: Recent Trends and Implications for the Future

Abstract

This paper concerns elderly individuals who share households with kin. It examines historical trends in multigenerational households and finds that while there has been a definite decline in the number and proportion of these households, the decline has been greater for the “young-old” (65 to 74) than the “old-old” (75+). Differences in the proportion of “single” elderly males and “single” elderly females living in multigenerational families are slight. In spite of the decline, the multigenerational household is still viable for approximately 2,000,000 elderly persons.