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Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Secondary nucleus

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
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Secondary nucleus  (SECONDARY nucleus)


When a private household (110-4) contains several persons they are called members of the household 1 and one of them will be the head of the household 2. There is no universally accepted rule as to who is considered the head of the household; in some cases it may be the principal earner 3. On most census schedules there appears a question dealing with the relationship 4 (114-3*) of members of the household to its head. This enables a distinction to be made between different groups in composite households 5 or complex households 5 which contain members of more than one biological family or nuclear family (113-1). A composite or complex household can be disaggregated into several nuclei 6, including a primary nucleus 7 and secondary nuclei 8. The nuclei are more commonly called families (112-1). The primary family 9★ is that of the household head when it is defined, the others are called secondary families 10★. Household size 11 denotes the number of persons included in the household.

  • 2. The term householder is sometimes used to refer to the head of the household. The term headship is frequently encountered.
  • 6. The nucleus is also called a conjugal family unit.

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