Family Demography

Family demography studies the formation, structure, and dissolution of families and households and their demographic dynamics.

Scope

It covers marriage and cohabitation, divorce, household composition, and the interplay of family change with fertility and other demographic processes.

Core questions

• How do families form and dissolve?
• How are households structured and changing?
• How does family change relate to fertility?
• How do family patterns vary across societies?

Key concepts

• Marriage and cohabitation
• Divorce
• Household composition
• Family formation
• Second demographic transition
• Living arrangements

Key theories

Family and fertility framework

Davis and Blake linked family structure to fertility through intermediate variables.

Family change and modernization

Goode analysed the worldwide shift toward conjugal family patterns.

History

Family demography links family-structure analysis (Davis & Blake; Goode) to fertility and household change, now centered on the 'second demographic transition' (cohabitation, delayed marriage, low fertility).

Debates

Convergence of family forms?

Whether family patterns are converging worldwide or diversifying.

Key figures

• Kingsley Davis
• Judith Blake
• William Goode

Seminal works

• davis-blake-1956
• goode-1963

Frequently asked questions

What is the second demographic transition?

A framework describing recent family changes — cohabitation, delayed and less marriage, below-replacement fertility — in advanced societies.