"Hum do, hamare do" seems to finally be coming true. An analysis of
recently released census data reveals that the median household size in
urban India is now less than four for the first time in history.
Data on houses and households released by the Census office shows that
56% of households in urban India now have four or less members. This is a
marked change from 10 years ago, when the median household size in
urban India was between four and five members.
With 49.7% of all Indian households having four or less members, the
median Indian household has just a fraction over four members. In rural
India, the median household size is between four and five members, but
closer to four than it has ever been. As many as 47.1% of rural
households now have four or less members, compared to less than 40% of
rural households ten years ago.
The new batch of Census 2011 data
showed that India now has 24.7 crore households. The data also lists
households by size, and tells us what proportion of Indian households
has one, two or three members and so on.
The census office has
not released the average household size because the provisional
population total and the number of households were counted at different
points in time, registrar general C Chandramouli said. What we can do is
determine the median household size, meaning the household size of 50%
of the population.
Nine states and union territories have a median household size of four or less members, including Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. UP is the only Indian state with a median household size above five.
While 'household size' is the number of people living together in one
house and so is not the same as 'family size', demographers say that in
India the declining household size is being driven by falling family
size.
This trend is not surprising, says demographer and
fertility expert P Arokiasamy, professor in the department of
development studies at the Mumbai-based International Institute for
Population Sciences. "As the demographic transition progresses and
fertility declines, household sizes will decline," Arokiasamy said.
Census data released last year showed that the four southern states had
already achieved a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman, recognised
as the "replacement rate".
"In addition, we are seeing a rise in
the number of nuclear families compared with multi-generational
families," Arokiasamy said. Nuclear families are the overwhelming norm
in India, with 70% of households having just one married couple.
Large families however remain a significant but not dominant component
of Indian life. Close to 20% of households have five members, and
another 25% have six to eight members, while 6.6% have nine or more
members. In Uttar Pradesh, more than half the households have six or
more members.
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