Annotation of Different Household Types in the CPS
Researchers have different ways of studying household relationships. The CPS has enough complexity in its hierarchy (housing, family and person records) and variables to allow a researcher to define almost any sort of unit to study. However, it is easier to do this if one has examples of different sorts of households in the data. The following are examples from the March CPS (1996). These examples illustrate how selected variables change across these different sorts of households. The specific variables used in the illustrations are:
| Description | Record | Start | Length |
| Household ID | H | 1 | 5 |
| Number of persons in the household | H | 21 | 2 |
| Household Income | H | 248 | 8 |
| Household Earnings | H | 256 | 8 |
| Family Sequence Number | F | 6 | 2 |
| Number of persons in the family | F | 11 | 2 |
| Family Income | F | 205 | 8 |
| Family Earnings | F | 213 | 8 |
| Sex | P | 20 | 1 |
| Marital status | P | 17 | 1 |
| Age | P | 15 | 2 |
| Relationship to head | P | 35 | 2 |
| Detailed relationship to head | P | 37 | 2 |
| Person Income | P | 440 | 8 |
| Person Earnings | P | 440 | 8 |
Primary/Nuclear family - A group of individuals related by marriage, blood, or adoption to the head. A typical example would be a husband, wife, and their unmarried children. Household 24334 is an example of a female-headed family. The divorced mother is 39 years of age and has two sons aged 9 and 8 respectively. [See Table 1 for illustrations.]
Primary/Subfamily - A nuclear family that has a related family living with it. Typical examples of this are a husband and wife, their divorced daughter and her children. If the divorced daughter did not have children, the family would be described as a primary or nuclear family. However, the fact that the daughter has a family of her own, makes her family a subfamily.
Household 24341 is an example of an older husband and wife (ages 54 and 53) with their divorced son (age 30) living with them and their grandson (age 8). The CPS codes the family size, family income, and family earnings for the primary family based on all 4 persons in the household. Family size, family income, and family earnings for the subfamily are based on the divorced son and his child.
Household 24480 is another example of a primary/subfamily relationship. In this case there is an older man and wife (ages 72 and 68) living with their daughter (age 45) and her husband (age 43).
Unrelated individuals - Individuals that are unrelated to other persons in the household are treated as one person families.
Household 24489 is an example of a household with two unrelated individuals. Both have the same household income, but their family incomes differ because they have different individual earnings and income. Household 24522 is another example of two unrelated individuals that should be treated as two families.
Another example of an unrelated individual that would be treated as a separate family is houshold 24488. In this household there is a family comprised of a head and her relative. There is an unrelated secondary individual who is 22 years of age. His family income is $1,000, which when combined with the family income of the first family ($8,800) results in a household income of $9,800.
Houshold 24470 is similar to household 24488. In this household there are three families. The first family is the head and relative (ages 32 and 27). The second family is comprised of the first unrelated secondary individual (age 27 with earnings of $17,000). The third family is comprised of the second unrelated secondary individual (age 26 with earnings of $16,000).
Household 24455 is another three family household. There is a father and his child for the first family. The second family is a 46 year old unrelated female with earnings of $19,000. The third family is an unrelated male, age 21, with earnings of $5,000.
Primary/Secondary families - Household 24611 is an example of a primary/secondary family household. This means that there are two families (individuals related by marriage, blood, adoption). However, the second family is not related to the first family. Basically, there are two unrelated families living with each other. These should be treated as two families. Recall that in the case of a Primary/Subfamily household, only one family record will be written out.
Table 1: Examples of Different Household Types from the March 1996 CPS
ID Hhld # Hhld Hhld Fam Fam Fam Fam Ind Ind Ind
Sz Fam Income Earning Seq Sz Income Earnings S M A R1 R2 Weight Income Earnings
24334 03 01 00060500 00005000 01 03 00060500 00005000 2 5 39 01 01 00103913 00060500 00005000
24334 03 01 00060500 00005000 01 03 00060500 00005000 1 7 09 03 04 00099513 00000000 00000000
24334 03 01 00060500 00005000 01 03 00060500 00005000 1 7 08 03 04 00077566 00000000 00000000
24341 04 02 00068899 00067996 01 04 00068899 00067996 1 1 54 01 01 00103355 00033877 00033600
24341 04 02 00068899 00067996 01 04 00068899 00067996 2 1 53 02 02 00103355 00006802 00006676
24341 04 02 00068899 00067996 02 02 00028220 00027720 1 5 30 05 10 00110733 00028220 00027720
24341 04 02 00068899 00067996 02 02 00028220 00027720 1 7 08 06 24 00090545 00000000 00000000
24489 02 02 00040000 00040000 01 01 00025000 00025000 1 5 36 10 49 00140237 00025000 00025000
24489 02 02 00040000 00040000 02 01 00015000 00015000 1 7 22 11 50 00161599 00015000 00015000
24488 03 02 00009800 00007600 01 02 00008800 00007600 2 7 29 01 01 00137953 00007900 00006700
24488 03 02 00009800 00007600 01 02 00008800 00007600 1 7 35 09 42 00183307 00000900 00000900
24488 03 02 00009800 00007600 02 01 00001000 00000000 2 7 22 11 50 00133792 00001000 00000000
24480 04 02 00038291 00031700 01 04 00038291 00031700 1 1 72 01 01 00178409 00008498 00002700
24480 04 02 00038291 00031700 01 04 00038291 00031700 2 1 68 02 02 00178409 00017793 00017000
24480 04 02 00038291 00031700 02 02 00012000 00012000 1 1 43 09 43 00121573 00012000 00012000
24480 04 02 00038291 00031700 02 02 00012000 00012000 2 1 45 05 11 00121573 00000000 00000000
24470 04 03 00075100 00075000 01 02 00042100 00042000 1 5 32 01 01 00092170 00020100 00020000
24470 04 03 00075100 00075000 01 02 00042100 00042000 1 7 27 09 42 00102773 00022000 00022000
24470 04 03 00075100 00075000 02 01 00017000 00017000 2 7 27 11 50 00092170 00017000 00017000
24470 04 03 00075100 00075000 03 01 00016000 00016000 1 7 26 11 50 00102773 00016000 00016000
24455 04 03 00050728 00046000 01 02 00026728 00022000 1 4 43 01 01 00092276 00026728 00022000
24455 04 03 00050728 00046000 01 02 00026728 00022000 1 7 13 03 04 00089945 00000000 00000000
24455 04 03 00050728 00046000 02 01 00019000 00019000 2 5 46 11 50 00084957 00019000 00019000
24455 04 03 00050728 00046000 03 01 00005000 00005000 1 7 21 11 50 00100353 00005000 00005000
24522 02 02 00030600 00030400 01 01 00021600 00021500 2 7 28 10 49 00083705 00021600 00021500
24522 02 02 00030600 00030400 02 01 00009000 00008900 2 7 25 11 50 00095340 00009000 00008900
24611 05 02 00039562 00031200 01 02 00031210 00031200 1 7 25 01 01 00112981 00031210 00031200
24611 05 02 00039562 00031200 01 02 00031210 00031200 1 7 01 03 04 00089450 00000000 00000000
24611 05 02 00039562 00031200 02 03 00008352 00000000 2 5 23 01 46 00112981 00008352 00000000
24611 05 02 00039562 00031200 02 03 00008352 00000000 1 7 06 03 48 00092769 00000000 00000000
24611 05 02 00039562 00031200 02 03 00008352 00000000 1 7 02 03 48 00099030 00000000 00000000
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