When I was in graduate school in the mid-1970s, one of my professors said there were about 60 million households in the United States. I became curious about how much we’ve grown since then and found the data below. You can find this information and more at American Fact Finder, a service run by the U.S. Census Bureau. If you have time, play around with finding data. There’s lots of interesting information right at your fingertips. The data below is from 2011, and it’s the most current data available.
Occupied Housing Units
114,991,725Owner-occupied64.6%
Renter-occupied35.4%
Average household size, owner-occupied2.71
Average household size, renter-occupied2.52
Units in Structure
1-unit, detached or attached68.9%
2 to 4 units7.9%
5 or more units17.2%
Mobile home, boat, RV, van, etc.6.0%
Year Built
2000 or later15.6%
1990 to 199914.0%
1980 to 198913.7%
1960 to 197927.0%
1940 to 195916.6%
1939 or earlier13.1%
Vehicles Available
None9.3%
One or more90.7%
Heating Fuel Type
Gas53.9%
Electricity36.3%
All other fuels8.9%
No fuel used0.9%
Median Value
$173,600
