Description

SUBFAM indicates to which subfamily (if any) within the housing unit each person belongs. Members of the first subfamily receive a code of 1; members of the second subfamily receive a code of 2; and so on. All individuals who are not part of a subfamily, including all residents of group quarters, receive a code of 0. See NSUBFAM for a household-level variable giving the total number of subfamilies within the household.

SUBFAM is analogous to FAMUNIT in that it identifies membership in family units within each household, but the specific family unit measured by each is different. FAMUNIT is coded 1 for all individuals who are related to the household head, whether or not they belong to a subfamily; SUBFAM is coded 0 for household heads; relatives of the household head also have a SUBFAM value of 0 unless they are in a subfamily. Individuals who are unrelated to the head and do not have a spouse or children in the household are put in their own FAMUNIT but have a SUBFAM value of 0. Additionally, in the event that an unrelated individual in a household has only one child in the household and that child has a child of their own, the eldest member of this three-generation family is given a SUBFAM value of 0 and the remaining two related individuals will be designated as their own parent-child subfamily. This is the only instance in which an individual unrelated to the head is not included in a subfamily when they have their own relatives living in the household.

For more information on subfamilies and their measurement, see Subfamily Overview.

Comparability

Aside from changes in the definition of group quarters, SUBFAM is perfectly comparable across time. See GQ and "Family Interrelationships" for a discussion of comparability issues.

The number of subfamilies in a household was topcoded for the 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940 100% file. Values of 9 represent persons in subfamilies 9+.

Universe

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• 1870: --
• 1860: --
• 1850: --

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Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.