The traditional nuclear household, which is one or two parents and some kids under one roof, is an ideal many strive for. However, if television sitcoms can teach us anything it’s that the modern family structure isn’t always nuclear.

Nuclear is still the most common, but there are millions of households in the United States with a different family structure. Based on data from the 5-year American Community Survey from 2010-2014, I counted 10,276 different types of households. The graphic below shows the top 50, ordered by most common from top to bottom and left to right.



Relationships are relative to the surveyed head of household. Larger circles are (mostly) adults, and smaller circles are children or grandchildren. Circles are colored dark green to show the householder’s family nucleus, light green for family members outside the nucleus, and gray for non-relatives, which includes friends and partners. Connecting lines represent marriage and children, or the householder’s family nucleus.

I categorized the household types — one-person, nuclear, extended, or composite — using household definitions from the United Nations.

These top 50 cover about 94 percent of all household types in the United States, and as you can see there is quite the mix. But like I said, the nuclear family still dominates covering about 54 percent of households, based on ACS estimates. Then again, that leaves 46 percent of households that are not nuclear, and that seems worth looking into more deeply.

Nerd Notes