Considerations for the definitions and classification of households and families and related variables for the 1990 round of censuses

Abstract

The recommendations for the 1980 censuses of population and housing in the ECE region were largely adequate and should not be substantially revised other than a need to more precisely and consisely state the definition. The notion of collecting information on both defacto and de jure marital status as well as the identification of a household maintainer can be considered as can be the notion of tabulating census data on the basis of coresident extended families in addition to coresident nuclear families. A case can be made for the use of automated coding in order to facilitate the accurate and consistent assignment of individuals into families. This is seen as being fundamental to the fuller exploitation of household and famility data bases. A challenge exists to be far more creative and innovative in the development of typologies and tabulation programs. While there is a demonstrated need to close some information gaps, such as through the provision of longitudinal family data using retrospective surveys, there is also a great need to more effectively use currently available crossectional data bases.