The Household Structure Transition in China: 1982–2015

Ting Li, Wenting Fan and Jian Song ()
Additional contact information
Ting Li: Renmin University of China
Wenting Fan: Southwest Jiaotong University
Jian Song: Renmin University of China

Demography, 2020, vol. 57, issue 4, No 8, 1369-1391

Abstract: Abstract Chinese society has experienced a dramatic change over the past several decades, which has had a profound impact on its household system. Utilizing the Chinese national census and 1% population survey data from 1982 to 2015, this study demonstrates the transition of the Chinese household structure through typology analyses. Five typical regional household structure types—large lineal, large nuclear, small nuclear, mixed lineal, and small and diverse—are identified. Our findings demonstrate that since the 1980s, the household system in almost all Chinese regions has evolved from a large unitary model to a small diversified one. However, this evolutionary path diverged after 2000 and formed two distinct household structure systems. There are also significant regional differences in the transition trajectory. Influenced by developmental, cultural, and demographic factors, the regions exhibit four distinct transition paths: lineal tradition, nuclear retardation, smooth transition, and fast transition. On the basis of these results, we discuss family modernization and other theories in explaining the transition of the Chinese household structure.

Keywords: Household structure transition; China; Regional difference; Typology analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13524-020-00891-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:demogr:v:57:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s13524-020-00891-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13524

DOI: 10.1007/s13524-020-00891-7

Access Statistics for this article

Demography is currently edited by John D. Iceland, Stephen A. Matthews and Jenny Van Hook

More articles in Demography from Springer, Population Association of America (PAA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().