Demographic Changes and Family Transition

Demographic transition associated with fertility decline, rising age at marriage, non-marriage, divorce, widowhood, mortality decline, increasing longevity, and migration, both internal and international, have been the prime factors influencing both forms and structures of family. Generally, the concept of household is employed to categorise various types of families. In this way, the family is looked at as a co-residential unit of family members, whether defined as a blood relationship or kinship; however, migration defies such a definition, as family members may have multi-locational residence. Further, ageing along with migration has led to the emergence of family forms unimagined in earlier times, like single-member households, female headships, broken nuclearization, and various forms of joint and extended families. The family transition is also likely to differ by the stages of development of the nation, class, caste, and ethnicity. This session will focus on the demographic changes and the changing nature of families across the countries of the world. Both empirical and theoretical papers are welcome with innovative data, as conventional sources of data are inadequate in capturing family transitions in relation to demographic changes.