U.S. Household Size, at a Record Low, May Finally Be Bottoming Out

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The average U.S. household had 2.52 people in 2019, the Census Bureau estimates. That’s the country’s lowest size ever. It’s precisely half of the number in 1880 and down a quarter from the Baby Boom-era average of 3.36.

This long decline in household size is linked to all sorts of economic and social phenomena: urbanization, the forgoing of marriage and childbirth—even the rise in spending on restaurants relative to groceries, as smaller households save less by preparing meals at home. Smaller households also use more energy per person, a hurdle for combating climate change as household sizes decrease around the world.

The shrinking of the American household may be coming to an end, though. In one sense, that’s inevitable: The average size can’t go below one; and even two feels like a stretch, though a couple of European countries have been flirting with that number lately.

In the U.S., the Census Bureau’s main household-size measure shows only the tiniest declines in recent years, while another census survey shows it rising since 2010. Adult children have been staying at or moving back to their parents’ homes. Unrelated people have been living together in greater numbers, too.

These trends may indicate that Americans have had enough of living alone. But they may also reflect high real estate prices in parts of the country and a housing stock that’s failed to adjust to falling household size. About 63% of households in the U.S. now consist of two or fewer people, but 61% of U.S. housing units have three bedrooms or more.
 
● Empty House
Households led by non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. had the smallest average size in 2019, at 2.36, while those led by Hispanics averaged 3.22 persons.
 
● Global Low
Germany’s average household size in 2018 of 1.99 was possibly the world’s lowest
 
● Full House
Utah had the largest average household size among U.S. states in 2018, at 3.12. Maine had the lowest, at 2.28. The metropolitan area with the largest households was El Centro, Calif., at 3.87

 
● Going Solo
One-person households accounted for 28.4% of the U.S. total in 2019, up from 13.1% in 1960. Households of four or more people went from a 40.2% share in 1960 to 22.1% in 2019.

Fox is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Eric Gelman at egelman3@bloomberg.net

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