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Description

FAMUNIT indicates to which family within the household a person belongs. If there is only one group of related individuals within the household, all of them will be coded "1"; if there is a second, separate such group listed on the form, all of them will be coded "2", and so on. In other words, primary families and primary individuals are identified in FAMUNIT with a code of "1"; each secondary family or secondary individual receives a higher code.

Family members can be related by direct descent (i.e., parents and children), marriage (i.e., spouses and in-laws), and adoption.

FAMUNIT is constructed from information in RELATE (relationship to head) and from the constructed pointer variables SPLOC, MOMLOC, and POPLOC (location of spouse, mother, and father).

FAMUNIT contains different information than the variable CFU. Whereas CFU indexes "conjugal families", FAMUNIT defines families as any group of related individuals. In the simplest cases - such as a family composed of a head, spouse and child - the CFU and FAMUNIT indices are the same. In more complicated cases, the indices will diverge.

Comparability

This variable is comparable for all countries, but see the discussion on Family Interrelationships for discussion of these NAPP constructed variables.

No constructed family interrelationship variables are available for the Canadian censuses of 1852, 1871, and 1881, Mecklenburg-Schwerin census of 1819, as relationship to household head is not available in these samples.

Universe

Codes

This is a 2-digit numeric variable.

Availability

• Canada: 1891, 1901
• Great Britain: 1851, 1881, 1881
• Iceland: 1801, 1901
• Norway: 1801, 1865, 1875, 1900
• Sweden: 1900
• United States: 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1880, 1900, 1910