Trends and Patterns in Changing Household Size in India: An Inter-State Comparison

The issue of changes in household size and composition in developing world is attracting scholarly attention only in recent years . Such changes have been quite widespread in economically developed countries. Demographers have in the past neglected the quantitative dimensions of the size composition and change in households and their causes and consequences. Changes in household size are clear reflections on changes in living arrangements as well as in household composition. The problem acquires nuances of meanings in a country like India which has shown indications towards a tendency to move into a low fertility regime in the years to come. Aggregate demographic statistics generally mask substantial changes in the size and number of households. As in most indicators of demographic, economic and social changes, household changes are neither uniform in their social and spatial content. The paper examines inter-state variation in this feature of change that is unfolding in India in recent years. The magnitude of household changes-both spatial and social-constitutes central problematic of the research.