Household type and family size in Maharashtra, 1970

Abstract

Demographic transition theory expectations notwithstanding, empirical analyses have often observed higher fertility among nuclear than among extended households. A similar finding has been observed consistently at all stages of the reproductive career among a sample of households in Maharashtra, India, in 1970. Neither differential levels of natural fertility nor of family‐size preferences and use of fertility regulation, nor differential socioeconomic levels, can explain adequately the higher fertility of nuclear households. On the other hand, the evidence suggests that the direction of causation is reversed, that is, that household type is itself a function of fertility and other life‐cycle variables and also of space constraints on the household, and as such, is a better determinant of household type than a function of the latter.