Continued move towards nuclear families combined with falling size of average households as shown in the Census 2011 data on housing, household amenities and assets, may point to the faster pace of urbanisation of the Kerala society posing new challenges for the policy makers.
As per the latest data available, out of the 7,716,370 households in the State, 68.5 per cent have one married couple each. The vestige of joint family system is evident in another 13. 8 percent where there are two married couples per household. The share of large joint families with four or more married couples living in household has come down to a marginal 0.5 per cent.
The average size of Kerala household has come down to 5 from 5.5 during the 2001 Census. This is on par with the national average. As per the data, 30 per cent of the households in the State have four members while 31.7 per cent have three members or less.
The presence of the huge middleclass population is evident with 32.2 per cent of the households having three dwelling rooms. A quarter of the households have two rooms each. As per the data, nearly 34 per cent of the households have four rooms of more. The top 5.8 per centage of the households have six rooms or more while the bottom 8.4 per cent have only one room or have no exclusive room.
The data shows that 90.7 per cent of the households are owned while 7.3 are rented facilities. Banking service is availed by 74.2 per cent of the households in the State.
