Household type explained Place Forecast Feature

Referenced by 4 other explainers

Household type shows how people live together at home. It looks at who shares each home.

These figures are Place Forecast estimates based on Census data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The six types are:

• Couples with children: a couple living with their children. Adult children at home are counted as children too.
• Couples without children: a couple with no dependent children at home. This includes empty-nesters and couples whose adult children live elsewhere.
• One parent families: one parent living with their children.
• Other families: related adults who are not a couple and not a parent with a child. For example, two adult siblings.
• Lone person households: one person living alone.
• Group households: adults who live together but are not related.

Most homes fall into one of these six types. Each home is counted once.

Two ABS household groups are left out here. They are Visitor only homes and homes that do not fit a group. The ABS does not publish these groups at the geography we build small areas from. So they cannot flow into the figures. As a result the total here sits a few per cent below the full ABS household count for the area.

These figures cover private homes that are lived in. They leave out empty homes and non-private dwellings such as hotels, hospitals, aged-care homes, or hostels.

The ABS does not publish a Not stated count for household type. Blank answers are added to the published totals.

A household can hold more than one family. When it does, the Census records it using the main family. For example, take a household with grandparents, parents, and children. It may still show as a couple family with children. It depends on how the ties are coded.

This page shows broad household types only. Other ABS datasets show more detail. They cover same-sex couples, de facto couples, step-families, and blended families.

These groups follow ABS classification rules. They do not reflect how people describe or understand their own family.

Reading this data fairly

These figures show how people answered Census questions. Here are the equity caveats to keep in mind. They keep the numbers fair:

• In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship, and in many culturally and linguistically diverse households, care is shared across many adults and homes. The ABS one-family count does not capture this.
• Read each household type as a count of how people answered. It is not a measure of need or a judgement about them.

See the marker methodology for how these figures are calculated and their limitations.