Mean Household Size in Kerala: An Inter-State Analysis

Household size is defined as ―a group of persons who commonly live together and would take their meals from a common kitchen unless the exigencies of work prevented them from doing so. A household may comprise of persons related to blood or of unrelated persons or have a mix of both (Census of India, 1991)‖. ―The studies on household size contribute a significant in the area of experiencing declining population growth which influences through significant changes in living arrangements‖ (Singh, 2018). The pace of declining household size of in rural areas is directly related to the emigration because of the backward effect of economic growth like as industrial, urban infrastructure and emerging of new metro cities. Levy (1985) analysed that fertility and household size are associated with socio-cultural and socio-economic aspects in developing countries. The cultural expectation of social security by old age people from their children is determinant as household size (Rani, 1986). The education level, psychological status, and individual perception towards society are determinants of fertility rate and household size. Geographers have analysed the extent of fertility and household size depends on individual‘s family backgrounds, social, psychological characteristics and economic status (Chandana, 2006). Blake (1986) has established an inverse interconnection between social class and household size. Wagner et al., (1985) have referred that some variables are associated with the small size of the family these are higher education level, late marriage, a longer gap between marriage and the birth of the first child and employment condition. The household size directly affects the quality of living space as well as in household composition. Several numbers of indicators of demographic, socio-economic changes, and household changes are neither uniform in their social and spatial content (Nayak, 2014). It may be notable to examine district-level variation in the size of the household change that is unfolding in Kerala in the last decade.

● To study the spatial pattern of household size in Kerala. ● To examine spatial differences in the household size of rural and urban in Kerala.

● The incomputable to the common idea, population growth did not only have positive change but also some negative outcomes in relation to the size of the household. ● The cycle of the rate of change in terms of population growth, migration, urbanization, religion, will be related to the variation in the size of the household. data. All secondary data are collected from a census of Kerala in 2011. The data like the district-level household size has been collected from the HH01 table. To achieve the expected results, the index of the average size of a household is calculated by i.e. Index of the mean size of household = ArcGIS is also used as a tool to make maps of the variation in the size of household in India. Source: Census of India, 2011.

Mean Household Size in Kerala According to the census, the average household size in Kerala represents 4.3 persons per household in 2011. The rural household size is about 4.2 persons per household and 4.3 persons per household in urban areas. In 2011, a comparison of the means household size with last decade depicted that the mean household size is gradually decreasing over time. Out of 14 districts, only one district have more than 5 persons per household. There is no change in the rural and urban household in six districts of Kerala likewise Palakkad, Thrissur, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram. Malappuram has the largest household size (5.2 persons per household) in Kerala. The districts which have a large number of household size in 2011 years are Kasaragod, Kannur, and Kozhikode. (Fig. 1.1 & 1.3).

The overall picture shows that mean household size revealing the status of equilibrium around the 4.2 persons per household in 2011. It has been noticed that in the last decade the joint family in the urban places was almost as high as in the rural areas. The small joint family is the most typical form of family life amongst the middle and upper middle urban economic classes in India. The increased deferential is because of the household size in rural constantly increase than the size of an urban household. The urban counterpart also shows stable status during this tenure. The overall difference in urban-rural household size revealed that increase and decrease of household difference rely on the trend of household in rural and urban household growth (Fig.1.3).

The study has found that the rural household size is larger in landlocked size while urban household size is greater in coastal region of Kerala. Kozhikode Kerala, six districts have zero percent change in urban-rural household size.

Blake, J. (1986). Number of Siblings, Family Background and the Process of Educational Attainment. Social Biology, 33, pp. 5–21. Chandana, R. C. (2006). Geography of Population Concepts, Determinants, and Patterns, New Delhi: Kalyani Publishers. Conklin, G. H. (1976). The household in Urban India. Journal of marriage and the Family, 38 (4), pp. 771-779. Levy, Victor (1985). Cropping Pattern, Mechanization, Child Labor and Fertility Behavior in a Farming Economy, Rural Egypt. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 33, pp. 777–791. Nayak, D. K. & Behera N. B. (2014). Changing Household Size in India: An Inter-State Comparison. Trans. Inst. Indian Geographers, 36 (1), pp. 1-17. Primary Census Abstract, 2011. Rani, U. D. (1986). Old Age Security Value of Children and Fertility in Relation to Social Policy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Sociological Association. Robinson, W. C. (1986). High fertility as Risk insurance. Population Studies, 40, pp. 289-298. Wagner, Mazie E, Herman J. P. Schubert, and Daniel S. P. Schubert (1985). Family Size Effects: A Review. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 146, pp. 65–78. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hh-series/hh01.html http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/B-series/B-Series-01.html http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-series/c-2.html http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html

Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Geography, M. D. University, Rohtak avinash2942@gmail.com