Abstract
In India, the existing knowledge on family structure is based on small-scale studies or research before 2000 and indicates remarkable changes from the widely perceived notion of the family system in the country. The present study assesses the trends, patterns, and determinants of family structure in India using large-scale nationally representative National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) data over the last three decades (1992/93–2019/21). Data from all five rounds of NFHS were analyzed, keeping the family structure as the dependent variable and several socio-economic characteristics as independent variables. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were performed using Stata. In the last three decades, single-person, nuclear pair, lineally extended, and lineally broken extended families had increased, while nuclear, supplemented nuclear, broken nuclear, and collaterally extended families had declined in the country. Gender, schooling, caste, and religion of the household head, wealth status of the household, household ownership of agricultural land, place of residence, and region of the household were significantly associated with the prevalence of single person, nuclear pair and collaterally extended family in India.
