The formal demography of families and households: an overview.

"The objective of the present paper is to give a brief overview of the subject matter of the formal demography of the family. Selected references are included, but no attempt is made to be exhaustive. No discussion of socio-economic determinants or consequences is included, because this overview is limited to the formal aspects of the field. "The...paper is divided into five parts. The first deals with the descriptive analysis of family and household size and composition, from both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal perspective. The next two sections discuss, in order, demographic determinants and consequences. This is followed by a brief section on projection methods and the conclusion." excerpt