Regionale Unterschiede der Haushaltsstruktur in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Abstract

This contribution examines the regional differences of household groups in the Federal Republic of Germany. Data from the 1978 microcefisus were used with the areal divisions of 85 planning-regions. By combining the variables household size, number of children, age and sex of the head, 18 household types were defined and their spatial distributions described. The results of a multidimensional scaling of all types show strong segregative tendencies for young one-person-households on the one hand, and large households with children on the other hand. Special attention was focused on those groups, whose increases were responsible for the strong change of household structure in the seventies, viz. the different groups of one-person-households, the one-parent-families, and the consensual unions. By means of a series of regression analyses, the varying proportions of the household groups were to be statistically explained. The degree of agglomeration and the structure of the economy (economic sectors, income) proved to be the most important predictors followed by socio-cultural variables (proportion of protestants, church attendance) which were interpreted as indicators of secularization.