By the numbers
Census numbers from 2010 show a shifting dynamic in Hoosier households.
• The share of Indiana’s occupied housing units that are owner-occupied declined from 71.4 percent in 2000 to 69.9 percent in 2010. Despite the drop, Indiana had the 11th highest homeownership rate in the country.
n Indiana’s homeowner vacancy rate was 2.6 percent in 2010 compared to 1.8 percent in 2000. The state’s rental vacancy rate increased from 8.8 percent in 2000 to 10.9 percent in 2010.
• The number of all family households in Indiana increased by nearly 72,000 over the decade, while the number of husband-and-wife-led households dropped by more than 10,000.
• Family households led by single females increased by nearly 51,000 while households led by single males grew by 31,000.
• Households led by single females with children under the age of 18 present accounted for 7.3 percent of all Indiana households in 2010. Single male-led households with children under 18 accounted for another 2.6 percent of households.
To find out more about how Indiana’s households are changing, visit the Indiana STATS website, run by the Indiana Business Research Center, at www.stats.indiana.edu.
INDIANAPOLIS — The fictional Hoosier family depicted on the ABC sitcom “The Middle” may be entertaining, but their household demographic isn’t very true to Indiana.
The makeup of the show’s Heck family — a husband-and-wife couple with children under 18 living under their roof — fits a category shrinking in size. Less than 20 percent of the 2.5 million Hoosier households now look that way, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Fifty years ago, it was more than 40 percent.
More accurate may be the cast of characters who populate the town of Pawnee, Ind., on the NBC sitcom, “Parks and Recreation.” The assortment of singles, married and divorced characters living together and alone in Pawnee’s fictional households are closer to reality.
Among the revelations from the 2010 Census is the changing nature of Hoosier households, say demographers charged with analyzing Indiana census numbers.
“Increasingly, we’re moving away from the 1950s view of ‘family’ with its two parents and 2.3 children living in the same house,” said Carol Rogers, director of Indiana University’s Indiana Business Research Center. “We’re moving more toward extended families living in multiple places.”
That trend has taken place over several decades, but the 2010 Census offered a mile-marker: That’s when the number of married-couple families, with or without children at home, dropped for the first time to less than half of all households in Indiana and in the United States.
Ten years ago, it was at 54 percent. In 1950, more than 75 percent of households were headed by married couples.
That shift presents a new reality, said Robert Guell, an Indiana State University economist. “The Norman Rockwell image we have of the Hoosier family is disappearing.”
A piece of that image that’s fading some is home ownership. The 2010 Census showed the share of occupied housing units that were owner-occupied declined from 71. 4 percent in 2000 to 69.9 percent in 2010. That’s a relatively small drop, which still leaves Indiana higher than 39 other states in homeownership rates, and well above the U.S. mark of 65.1 percent. It also is significantly above the 55 percent homeownership rate in the United States back in 1950.
Indiana also remains more married than most states; it ranks 15th in the nation for the portion of married-couple households compared to all households. But traditional marriage and family may be losing its potency.
While the number of all family households in Indiana (defined as people who are related by blood, marriage or adoption) increased by nearly 72,000 from 2000 to 2010, the number of husband-and-wife-households dropped by more than 10,000.
That means there was an increase in the number of family households led by single females and single males. According to the 2010 Census, more than 10 percent of all Indiana households are now led by single parents with children under the age of 18.
That’s a worrisome trend, Guell said, since the poverty rate for children in single-parent homes is higher than for children in married-couple homes. Beyond money, single parents who are working also struggle to find time to devote to household and family needs. “There are a lot of things that two parents can accomplish together that one parent alone can’t,” Guell said.
Nationally, the 2010 Census revealed a myriad of changes in households, including more single-parent households, more unmarried couples — including same-sex couples — living together, and a declining marriage rate. The U.S. Census Bureau also reported that among African-American households with children under 18, there are more without a father present than with one present.
Sheila Suess Kennedy, a public policy and law professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said the changing demographics of Hoosier households is something that policy makers and politicians need to pay attention to as they plan for the future.
“We should be dealing with the world as it is rather than what we think it is or want [it] to be,” Kennedy said. “We’ve got some real problems, but the solutions for them need to fit the way we are today, not the way we were in the past.”
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