This article deals with the distributions of households by size, that is, by number of persons, as they are observed in international comparisons, and for fewer countries, over time. Earlier explorations indicated that, within countries and within significant subnational groups, size differences among households are positively correlated with differences in income per household but negatively correlated with differences in household income per person? Given this combination, it follows that inequality in the size distribution of households constitutes a minimum to which the associated inequalities in income per household and in household income per person should total. Thus, differences and changes in size disparities among households should result in differences or changes in the associated disparities in income per household, or in the associated disparities in household income per person, or in both. These different or changing contributions of the size disparities among households – the major topic of this article – are of interest because they may affect significantly the total distribution of income among the population by income per household, or by household income per person, or both.

International comparison for recent years

We begin with an international comparison of the size distributions of households for a large number of countries in recent years.