Population structure and distribution
11
3.3 Household composition and marriage patterns 3.3.1 Household structure
The total number of households
1
in Afghanistan is estimated at around 3.6 million. This implies an average household size of 7.4 persons, about the same as found in the NRVA 2005 and 2007-08 respectively 7.4 and 7.3 members
per household. Despite having fewer children under 15, urban households are slightly larger than rural households see Table 3.2
. This is consistent with the 2007-08 indings, but contrary to the general inding that urban households are smaller. One explanation could be that the housing market in the urban sector of Afghanistan – strongly dominated
by Kabul – is tight and rural-to-urban migrants, as well as immigrants, tend to move in with urban family rather then establish an independent household by themselves. This reasoning is supported by the inding that urban households
accommodate relatively more extended and multi-generation families data not shown here.
Table 3.2: Households, by residence, and by selected household structure indicators
Selected household structure indicators
Urban Rural
Kuchi National
Thousands Percentage Thousands Percentage
Thousands Percentage Thousands Percentage
Household size
1-3 persons 68.3
8.4 240.4
9.2 20.2
10.0 328.9
9.1 4-6 persons
273.8 33.5
867.9 33.3
69.7 34.4
1,211.4 33.4
7-9 persons 296.4
36.2 936.5
35.9 71.3
35.3 1,304.2
35.9 10-13 persons
141.4 17.3
445.7 17.1
33.8 16.7
620.8 17.1
14 persons or more 38.0
4.6 119.0
4.6 7.3
3.6 164.2
4.5 Total
817.8 100.0
2,609.4 100.0
202.3 100.0
3,629.5 100.0
Averages
Household size 7.5
7.4 7.2
7.4 No. of children 0-14
3.1 3.7
3.8 3.6
No. of elderly 65 and over 0.25
0.16 0.17
0.18
Share of
Children 0-14 42.0
50.1 53.0
48.4 Elderly 65 and over
3.3 2.2
2.3 2.5
On average, households have 3.6 children under 15 years of age, with urban households having half a child less. One in four urban households, on average, accommodate an elderly person, with the corresponding rural igure being around
one in six households. The large majority of households 69.3 percent have 4 to 9 members, whereas 21.6 percent some 785 thousand
households accommodate 10 or more people, and only 9.1 percent has three or fewer persons. The population distribution is to a much larger degree concentrated in large households: more than one in three 35.3 percent of all
Afghans live in households with 10 or more people and only 3.2 percent do so in households with three or fewer people. One-person households are virtually non-existent. Figure 3.2 shows the distribution of households and population by
household size.
1 A household is deined as group of people, either related or unrelated, who live together as a unit single in the sense that they have common housekeeping
arrangements, that is, they share or are supported by a common budget. They live together, pool their money, and eat at least one meal together each day.
POPULATION STRUCTURE AND CHANGE
Figure 3.2: Households and population, by household size in percentages
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
15
1 2
3 4
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20+
Households Population
A very small proportion – less than one percent – of households are female-headed see Table 3.3. In the Afghan context, the absence of a male head of household can signify a highly vulnerable position of the household members
in terms of income security and social protection. In a similar way, households headed by young persons under 18 or old people 65 and over without younger adult male household members can ind themselves exposed to economic
and social threats. The occurrence of any one of these three categories of household heading is in 3.1 percent of the cases. This represents 539 thousand people 2.0 percent of the total population living in such potentially vulnerable
households.
More than one in three households 36 percent is composed of two or more generations. Of the population, just over one out of four persons 27 percent live in such multi-generation households.
Table 3.3: Households and population, by household characteristics in percentages
Characteristics of head of household
Percentage of households
population Headed by female
0.7 0.4
Headed by child under 18 0.4
0.3 Headed by elderly 65+
without younger male adults 2.0
1.3 Multi-generation household
a
36.2 27.2
a
Multi-generation households are those that include three generations or more.