Analysis: Stable household and family patterns

THE initial evidence from Census 2011 indicates considerable stability in trends in family and household formation patterns since 2006.

Many of the changes in the composition of families and households — as in other western societies — can be attributed to the postponement and “unbundling” of family life transitions, especially in early adulthood.

People are waiting longer to marry, set up house and have children, and the sequencing of those transitions is no longer as ordered or closely scheduled as in the past.