DWELLINGS AND FAMILIES IN THE UNITED STATES (1920). According to the census usage the term "family" signifies a group of persons, whether related by blood or not, who live together as one household, usually sharing the same table. One person living alone is counted as a family, and, on the other hand, the occupants of a hotel or institution, however numerous. are also treated as forming a single family. Thus the census family in some cases differs greatly from the natural family, but the averages afford a fairly accurate index of the extent to which the size of families has been decreasing from census to census. 1880 to 4.9 in 1890 4.7 in 1900, 4.5 in 1910 and 4.3 in 1920, and the average number of persons to a dwelling has decreased from 5.6 in 1880 to 5.5 in 1890, 5.3 in 1900. 5.2 in 1910 and 5.1 in 1920. The term "dwelling" as here used signifies any building or structure in which one or more persons regularly sleep. It may not necessarily be a house in the usual sense of the word. A boat, a tent, a freight car, or a room in a warehouse, if it serves as a regular sleeping place for one or more persons, is treated as a dwelling. On the other hand, an entire apartment house, although the abiding place of many families, constitutes only one dwelling. The average number of persons to a family in the United States has declined from 5 in In general the average size of families is greatest in the southern states and smallest in the western states. The number of persons to a dwelling is greatest in New England and the middle Atlantic states and smallest in the western states. Among the individual states the number of persons to a family in 1920 ranged from 3.5 in Nevada to 5 in North Carelina and the number to a dwelling from 3.7 in Nevada to 7.8 in New York. UNITED STATES AS A WHOLE (1880-1920), Census yr. Dwellings. 1920. 20.697.204 1910. 17.805.845 1900. 14.430 145 1890. 11.483,318 1880. 8.955.812 *Persons to dwelling. 20.255.555 5.2 4.5 16.187.715 5.3 4.7 4.9 12.690.152 5.5 9.945.916 5.6 3.0 †Persons to family. |