A household including a family (See: "Family"). A family household may also include nonrelatives living with the family. The following subcategories are frequently provided: married-couple family; family with male householder, no wife present; and family with female householder, no husband present (see: "Family Type").

A household consisting of a person living alone or of a householder living with other unrelated individuals (see: Unrelated Individual).

In 1970, nonfamily households were termed primary individual households, a primary individual being a person living alone or the head of a household in which no relatives were present.

See also: "Family;" "Family Type;" "Unrelated Individual."

Persons in the household include:

• Householder - The person who was reported in column 1. This reference person was to be the person or one of the persons in whose name the home was owned or rented. If there was no such person, any adult household member at least 15 years old who was not a roomer, boarder, or paid employee was to be reported in column 1. In complete-count tabulations, the number of householders is the same as the number of households or occupied housing units. In sample tabulations, the numbers may not always be the same because of differences in weighting sample data.

1. Family householder - A householder living with one or more persons related to him or her by birth, marriage, or adoption.
2. Nonfamily householder - A householder living alone or only with persons not related to him or her.

For most tabulations, spouse is defined as the husband or wife of the householder, living with householder. This category may include persons in common-law marriages as well as persons in formal marriages; it does not include a partner or roommate of the opposite sex. In complete-count tabulations, the number of spouses is the same as the number of married-couple families or married-couple family households. The number of spouses, however, is generally less than half of the number of married persons with spouse present" in sample tabulations, since only spouses of householders are specifically identified as "spouse." Sample tabulations of the number of married persons with spouse present include subfamilies (see definition under Family) as well as married-couple families.

A son, daughter, stepchild, or adopted child of the householder, regardless of the child's age or marital status. The category excludes sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and foster children.

A household member related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption, but not included specifically in another relationship category. The scope of this category may differ from table to table, depending what other relationship categories are included. In detailed tabulations (STF 2 , STF 5, or PC80-l-D) the following categories may also be shown:

Any household member, including foster children, not related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. The following categories are presented in certain more detailed tabulations.

(Treated-as categories of household relationship for purposes of tabulation. For definitions, see: Group Quarters, Persons In.) Persons in group quarters are excluded from counts of persons in households.Responses to the household relationship item were also used in defining families, and subfamilies (see: "Family;" "Family Type;" "Household Type"). Tabulations frequently report relationship for persons in family households separately from persons in nonfamily households.

The question was revised from 1970 to replace the head-of-household category with a format using a reference person, i.e., the "person in column 1." 1980 householders differ from 1970 household heads primarily where the wife in a married-couple family is listed as the "person in column 1." In 1970, the husband was automatically assumed to be the "head" of such a family. In 1980 tabulations, the substitution of one spouse for the other as the reference person may affect certain of the classifications, such as "parent" or "brother or sister," within the "other relative" grouping. The person in whose name the house or apartment is owned or rented may in a few cases differ from the person considered by other household members as the "head, but this is expected to affect the classification of relatively few households.The 1970 questionnaire category "other relative of head" was replaced on the questionnaire by three categories, "brother/sister," "father/mother," and "other relative." Since the category "patient or inmate" is marked only by census enumerators, it was moved to the bottom of the form in a space reserved for "census use only." New nonrelative categories include "partner, roommate and "paid employee." The former question asking relationship to head of family or household was asked from 1880 to 1970.

See also: "Family;" "Family Type;" "Group Quarters," "Persons In;" "Household Type."

Calculated as the value which divides the age distribution into two equal parts, one-half the cases falling below this value, one-half above. Median age is computed from the age intervals or groupings shown in the particular tabulation, and thus a median based on a less detailed distribution may differ slightly from a corresponding median for the same population based on a more detailed distribution. If the median falls in the terminal category, e.g., 75 years and over, the median is shown as the initial age of the category with a plus sign, e.g., 75+.

In previous censuses, undercoverage of the population has been associated with age. Young adults, especially Black males, were missed at a higher rate than other segments of the population.

Age data have been collected in each census since 1790. Counts in 1970 and 1980 for persons 100 years old and over were substantially overstated.

See also: "Age of Householder."