Then AND NOW: How American families have changed since the early 1900s

millennials living at home

Family life is irresolute in the United states of america.
Barry Chin/The Boston World via Getty Images
  • Average family size is decreasing, and center children could exist going extinct.
  • More and more Americans are living in multigenerational households.
  • Smartphones have inverse the way families interact.

Family unit traditions, recipes, and heirlooms tin be passed from generation to generation relatively unchanged. Merely families themselves have undergone many changes due to advancements in engineering science, economical factors, and societal shifts.

Here's how families have changed from the 1900s to today.

The divorce rate is decreasing.

Divorce is becoming less common.
Getty Images

INSIDER Data sourced figures from theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention and found that thedivorce rate has been steadily decreasing since the mid-1980s. In 2017, the rate reached 2.ix divorces per 1,000 Americans with only 787,251 divorces total — the lowest information technology's been since 1968.

Information scientist Randal Southward. Olson writes that theonly major spike in the divorce rate was after World State of war II, probably considering of  "pre-WWII marriages coming to an sharp end once the romance of wartime union wore off."

INSIDER'due southKim Renfro reportedthat some sociologists say there could be a link between declining divorce rates and more people deciding to live together before marriage.

Household sizes have decreased, but the size of the average family abode has increased.

Single-family homes are bigger.
John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images

According to Census Bureau data, the boilerplate single-family house is nigh 1,000 square feet bigger than it was xl years ago.

In 1973, the boilerplate single-family domicile in the Us was ane,525 square feet. In 2010, that number had increased to 2,169 square anxiety.

At the same time, the average household size has been decreasing. In 1960, at that place were an average of 3.3 people per household. In 2018, it dropped to 2.53 people.

Men are pitching in more to help with housework and parenting responsibilities, but women still practice nigh of it.

Men are helping more effectually the house.
Ted South. Warren/AP

Every bit gender roles shift and women focus more on their careers before having children, millennial men are also shifting to take on more housekeeping and parenting responsibilities — or, at to the lowest degree, they're trying to. Women even so take on a disproportionate amount of that unpaid labor.

"The majority of young men and women say they would ideally like toevery bit share earning and care giving with their spouse,"Sarah Thébaud, a sociologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told The New York Times. "But it's pretty clear that nosotros don't have the kinds of policies and flexible work options that really facilitate egalitarian relationships."

Many Americans moved to the suburbs after Earth War II.

Suburbs have grown in popularity.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

Before World State of war Ii, xiii% of Americans lived in suburbs, according to the Oxford Inquiry Encyclopedia. By 2010, half of the Us population lived in suburbs.

As car buying became more popular, it allowed families to move farther from urban areas and commute to piece of work, and having a home with a backyard and picket fence became the "American dream."

Deal icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Keep reading

More: Features Families America Parenting

Chevron icon Information technology indicates an expandable section or carte, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.