Household size in Beijing shrinks

Beijing, Jan 19. (PTI): The average size of a household in Beijing has shrunk from 3.89 members in 1982 to 2.71 members now, a new survey shows.

Chaoyang District in eastern Beijing, a district with many foreign residents, has the smallest average household size of 2.58 members, according to the survey conducted by the Beijing Statistics Bureau.

As the economy has developed and living conditions improve, Beijing has seen big changes to families, the basic unit of society, said an official from the population department of the bureau.

Households are moving away from the extended family model towards a more nuclear family orientation. Single generation households accounted for 39 per cent of the total in 2005, compared with 31 per cent in 2000, while households made up of two and three generations dropped by 5.9 and 2.3 percentage points respectively, Xinhua news agency reported.

Households will continue to shrink in size, and the number of bachelors and DINK (Double Income No Kids) families will increase, as a result of low birth rates and changing family concepts, the official said.

As the extended family unravels, people who once lived together are occupying separate residences. Statistics show that there were 5.25 million households in Beijing in 2005, an increase of 27.5 per cent on the 2000 figure.
 

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