Referenced by 8 other explainers
Kinship is the way families share care and daily life across many people. In many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, and in many culturally and linguistically diverse households, care for children and family members is shared across several adults and homes.
The ABS counts one main family per household. It also sorts people into set family and household types. This count does not capture care that is shared across more adults and homes than one household holds.
So a marker that counts families or households can undercount these wider patterns. Read the figures with that in mind. The numbers show what the ABS coding records, not the full shape of family life.
This caveat is about what the data leaves out. It is not a description of how any kinship system works. That knowledge belongs to the communities themselves.