Week 12 · Chapter

Chapter 12 — Family & Marriage

Introduction to Sociology Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~35–45 minutes · Objective 7 (explain the major social institutions — family, education, religion, the economy and work, and government and politics — through the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives, including Weber's types of authority and the pluralist and power-elite models), building on Objective 6 (analyze race and ethnicity and sex, gender, and sexuality as socially constructed categories — prejudice, discrimination, and institutional racism; gender socialization and 'doing gender'; the earnings gap and its competing explanations — reasoning from documented evidence in the source's own categories rather than from anecdote or stereotype) and Objective 2 (describe and evaluate the major sociological research methods (surveys, experiments, field research and ethnography, secondary-data analysis), distinguish reliability from validity and a population from a sample, and read a social statistic critically — what it measures, over what population and period, what it shows and does not, and whether it is a correlation or a cause) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slide deck, the tutorial, the quiz, and the Sociology in Action Workshop all build on it.

In plain language

Almost everyone grows up inside some kind of family, but families do not all look alike. This week asks what a family is (a group a society recognizes as kin, linked by birth, marriage, partnership, or adoption) and why its shape changes from one culture and one generation to the next. You will sort the main patterns of marriage, from one spouse at a time to more than one. You will read the family through the three perspectives you already know. Then you will learn the difference between a household (everyone living in one home) and a family, and read real Census Bureau figures on how American households have changed over fifty years.

Why you already care about this

In its 2025 Families and Living Arrangements release, the Census Bureau reported that married-couple households were 47% of all U.S. households. In 1975 they were 66%. Over the same fifty years, the share of households made up of one person living alone rose from 20% to 29%, and the median age at which men first marry rose from 23.5 to 30.8.

You do not need a Census report to see these changes in your own life. Maybe a cousin moved in with a partner years before any wedding. Maybe your grandmother lives with you, or you share an apartment with two people who are not related to you at all. Maybe someone at a family dinner has asked, more than once, when you plan to settle down.

Each of those moments you have lived is a small window onto one of society's oldest institutions. This chapter gives you the words for what you see through it, and the habits to read the numbers without turning them into a verdict.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

define a family and kinship, and tell a family of orientation from a family of procreation and a nuclear family from an extended one;
sort a described marriage into monogamy, polygyny, or polyandry, and into endogamy or exogamy;
run one family situation through structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism, naming each level of analysis;
sort a described home into a family household, a nonfamily household, a married-couple household, or a one-person household;
read the 1975 and 2025 household shares and median ages four ways, with the arithmetic shown;
state the decline view and the change view of the same trend at full strength, without declaring a winner.

Carry this line with you: count homes versus count kin — never the same number.

Where we are

Already covered: Week 1 gave you the three perspectives and the macro and micro levels. Week 2 taught the four data questions and the percentage point. Week 3 named some recognized form of family as a cultural universal, and Week 4 named the family as the first agent of socialization. Week 7 read income and wealth across households, and Week 11 showed how gender is done in everyday interaction.
This week: what a family is, how its forms and marriage patterns vary, how the three perspectives read it, how the Census Bureau separates a household from a family, and how to read fifty years of household change.
How they connect: Week 11's idea that people "do gender" now moves into the home, where partners divide the chores; Week 7's habit of naming the measure returns when you read household shares.
Where we're going next: this week opens the unit on social institutions; Week 13, Social Institutions: Education & Religion, reads the school and the congregation through the same three lenses.

Week 2 is the chapter this one leans on most. There you learned to ask four questions of any figure: what is measured, over whom and when, what it shows and does not, and whether it is a correlation or a cause. Section 7 runs the Census Bureau's household figures through all four. Week 2 also gave you the percentage point, the unit for the difference between two percentages. Week 1's levels matter all week: the family is a macro institution, yet you live it in micro moments at a kitchen table.

1. See the family: a tie a society recognizes

Picture three forms a student might fill out in one year. A student aid form asks about your parents' income. A hospital form asks who may visit you. An apartment lease asks who will live in the unit. Each form draws the line around "family" in a slightly different place.

That is the first idea of the week. A family is not only a fact of biology. It is a group that a society agrees to recognize.

A family is a group that a society recognizes as kin, linked by birth, marriage, partnership, or adoption, whose members usually share emotional bonds and economic support.
Kinship is the web of relationships that a society counts as relatives, built from ties of birth, marriage, partnership, and adoption.

The form a family takes varies across cultures and changes over time. In one society, cousins are as close as siblings. In another, a godparent or a family friend counts as kin. Within one society, the families of one generation can look quite different from the families of the next.

Because every society builds some lasting arrangement like this, sociologists call the family an institution.

A social institution is a lasting, organized arrangement that a society builds to meet shared needs, such as the family, schooling, religion, the economy, or government.

Worked example — where the line falls. Decide whether each tie is kinship, and say what kind of tie it is.

A child adopted as an infant. A tie by adoption: kinship.
A spouse's brother. A tie by marriage: kinship.
A coworker you have known for ten years. A close bond, but not a tie of birth, marriage, partnership, or adoption: not kinship in the usual sense.
A grandparent's sister. A tie by birth: kinship.

In words: ask "does this society count the tie as relatedness?" Birth, marriage, partnership, and adoption are the usual answers.

Misconception check — "a family is whoever shares my blood." Students often define family by biology alone. It is tempting, because birth is the tie people mention first. But adoption and marriage create kin too, and societies draw the line in different places. The cure: define a family by what a society recognizes, then list the ties it counts.

Memory hook: recognized, not only born — ask which ties count.

2. Name the two families in one life: orientation and procreation

Think about the people you grew up with. Now think about the people you might one day live with as an adult. For most people, those are two different families.

The family of orientation is the family a person is born or adopted into and grows up in.
The family of procreation is the family a person forms as an adult, through a partnership, a marriage, or raising children.

Families also differ in how many generations and relatives they hold.

A nuclear family is a family made up of one or two parents and their children living together.
An extended family is a family that adds other relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins, to the parents and children, living together or sharing daily support.

Worked example — one apartment, two readings. In an illustrative apartment, a grandmother, her daughter, and the daughter's two children share one kitchen.

Three generations under one roof. A grandparent is added to the parent and children, so this is an extended family.
The daughter's family of orientation. Her mother, the grandmother, raised her: that is the family she grew up in.
The daughter's family of procreation. She and her two children: that is the family she formed as an adult.
The children's family of orientation. Their mother and grandmother: the family they are growing up in now.

In words: one person can belong to two families at once, the one that raised them and the one they built. The same household can be an extended family for everyone in it.

Misconception check — orientation and procreation swapped. Students often mix up the two terms because both describe "my family." The cure is a question about time: did you grow up in it (orientation), or did you form it as an adult (procreation)?

Memory hook: orientation raised you; procreation is the family you start.

3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside

Picture a wedding you have attended or seen in a film. Two people stand together. That picture feels like the definition of marriage, but it is only one pattern among several.

Marriage is a socially recognized union between partners that carries rights and duties toward each other and toward any children they raise.
Monogamy is a marriage pattern in which a person is married to one spouse at a time.
Polygamy is a marriage pattern in which a person is married to more than one spouse at a time, in the form of polygyny or polyandry.
Polygyny is the form of polygamy in which one husband is married to several wives at the same time.
Polyandry is the form of polygamy in which one wife is married to several husbands at the same time.

Your society also sets rules about whom you may marry.

Endogamy is a marriage pattern in which people marry within their own social group, such as their own religion, class, or community.
Exogamy is a marriage pattern in which people marry outside their own social group, such as outside their own kin group.
The incest taboo is the prohibition on sex and marriage between close relatives, with each society drawing its own line around which relatives are too close.

Week 3 taught that a taboo is the strongest kind of norm. The incest taboo is one, and societies draw it in different places. In an illustrative society one, first cousins may marry; in an illustrative society two, they may not.

Worked example — sorting four illustrative marriages. Name the pattern each one shows.

A woman married to two brothers at the same time. One wife, several husbands: polyandry, a form of polygamy.
A community whose members are expected to marry someone of the same faith. Marrying inside the group: endogamy.
A man married to three wives at the same time. One husband, several wives: polygyny, a form of polygamy.
A village rule that a person must marry someone from outside their own clan. Marrying outside the group: exogamy.

In words: first count the spouses (one at a time is monogamy; more is polygamy), then ask whether the rule points inside the group or outside it.

Misconception check — polygamy as one arrangement. Students often use "polygamy" to mean one husband with several wives. It is tempting, because that is the form people hear about most. But polygamy has two forms, and polygyny and polyandry differ. The cure: say which spouse is plural.

Caveat: these are patterns, so you never read one family as the rule for a whole culture. A described custom tells you about that case, not about every family that shares a language or a faith.

Memory hook: count the spouses, then ask: inside the group or out?

4. Run the family through three lenses: jobs, power, meanings

Think of an illustrative household on a weeknight, perhaps one like yours. One adult cooks, one helps a child with homework, and a teenager is supposed to take out the trash. Ask three people why this household works the way it does, and you may get three different answers. Sociology keeps all three.

Structural functionalism (macro) asks what jobs the family does for society. It names four:

socialization of children, teaching them the culture they will live in, the work Week 4 named;
regulation of sexual behavior and reproduction, setting rules about who may partner with whom;
economic support, pooling money, food, and shelter;
emotional support, giving members comfort and a sense of belonging.

Conflict theory (macro) asks who gains and who gives. It reads the household as a place where patriarchy and inequality are passed down. Patriarchy, the term Week 11 used for a social order in which men hold more power, shows up when one partner does far more unpaid work at home. Inequality is passed down too: a family that owns a home can leave it to the next generation, while a family that rents has nothing like it to pass on. That is Week 7's wealth, moving through the household.

Symbolic interactionism (micro) asks what family roles mean to the people in them. What does "dad" mean in this house? Who counts as "the one who cooks"? Week 11 introduced West and Zimmerman (1987), "Doing Gender", which argues that gender is something people continually do in interaction rather than a fixed trait they possess. At home, partners "do gender" each time they decide, or assume, who cleans, who fixes, and who plans.

Worked example — the weeknight household, three lenses. Read the same illustrative kitchen through each perspective.

Structural functionalism (macro). The family is doing its jobs: feeding its members, teaching a child, and passing on habits of shared work.
Conflict theory (macro). If one adult does most of the cooking and cleaning every night without pay, the household is reproducing an unequal division of labor.
Symbolic interactionism (micro). The teenager's grumbling about the trash is a negotiation over what "pulling your weight" means in this family.

In words: the first two lenses read the family as a macro institution, and the third reads it at the micro level of meanings made at the table. No lens is declared correct.

Misconception check — "one lens is the real answer." Students often decide the family "really" exists to raise children, or "really" exists to keep one group on top. Both moves skip the weighing. The three lenses answer different questions at different levels. The cure: write one sentence per lens, then name its level.

Memory hook: jobs, power, meanings — three questions about one kitchen.

5. Run one marriage decision through the lenses: cohabitation

Picture an illustrative couple who have lived together for three years. They share a lease, a car, and a dog. Now they are deciding whether to marry.

Cohabitation is two partners living together as a couple in one home without being married.

To you, the decision would look personal, and it is. But each lens shows a different layer of it.

Worked example — the couple's decision, three lenses. Read the same decision through each perspective in turn.

Structural functionalism (macro). A marriage adds a unit the society recognizes and relies on, such as a recognized home for raising children and a clear line of who supports whom.
Conflict theory (macro). Some rights and benefits are tied to a marriage license, so the couple who marries gains them and the couple who stays unmarried does not. Conflict theory also asks who carries more of the unpaid work at home, married or not.
Symbolic interactionism (micro). The word "married" may mean commitment to one partner, a family duty to the other, and a long-awaited celebration to their relatives. The meaning shapes the choice.

In words: functionalism and conflict theory read the marriage at the macro level of the society's rules and rewards; interactionism reads it at the micro level of what the word means to the people involved.

Misconception check — cohabitation as "not a real relationship." Students sometimes treat living together as a lesser stage that does not count. It is tempting, because a wedding is the visible marker. But cohabitation is its own recognized pattern, and many cohabiting couples share a home, money, and children. The cure: describe the arrangement first, then ask what each lens says about it.

Pause and choose one of these two prompts.

(a) Describe one family custom you know, such as how holidays are hosted or who handles the bills, and run it through one perspective, naming its level of analysis.
(b) Describe how the word "family" is used in one setting outside the home, such as a team, a workplace, or a group chat, and explain what that use borrows from the family as an institution.

Memory hook: a personal choice inside public rules.

6. Tell a household from a family: the Census Bureau's count

Picture three illustrative roommates who share a lease on a three-bedroom apartment. They split the rent, take turns buying groceries, and are not related. Are they a family? Are they a household? The Census Bureau gives two different answers.

The Census Bureau counts homes and families separately, and you need its exact words.

A household, in the Census Bureau's count, is all the people who live in one housing unit, whether or not they are related to one another.
A family household, in the Census Bureau's count, is a household maintained by a person who lives with at least one relative by birth, marriage, or adoption.
A nonfamily household, in the Census Bureau's count, is a household of one person living alone or of a person living only with people who are not related to them.
A married-couple household, in the Census Bureau's count, is a household in which the person who maintains the home lives with a spouse.
A one-person household is a household made up of a single person living alone, which the Census Bureau counts as a household but not as a family.

A family, in the Census count, is two or more people living together who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption. So the roommates form one household and no family.

Worked example — sorting four illustrative homes. Name the kind of household.

The three roommates. One home, no relatives: a nonfamily household.
A retired teacher who lives alone. One person: a one-person household, which is also a nonfamily household.
A single father and his two children. A person living with relatives: a family household, but not a married-couple household.
Two spouses and their son. The person who keeps the home lives with a spouse: a married-couple household, which is also a family household.

In words: every home is a household, but only a home with relatives in it holds a family. A family household need not hold a married couple.

Misconception check — household and family used interchangeably. Students often read "households" and "families" as two words for one thing. It is tempting, because most people picture a family when they picture a home. But the Census Bureau counts them separately: the roommates and the retired teacher are households, not families. The cure: before reading any figure, ask "is this a count of homes or a count of families?"

Memory hook: every home is a household; only kin make it a family.

7. Read the household figures: 1975 and 2025, four ways

Now read the real numbers with Week 2's four questions. The source is the Census Bureau's 2025 Families and Living Arrangements release, which compares 2025 with 1975.

The table below sets out the figures you will work with.

U.S. household shares and median ages at first marriage, 1975 and 2025, from the Census Bureau's 2025 Families and Living Arrangements release
Figure	1975	2025
Married-couple households, share of all households	66%	47%
One-person households, share of all households	20%	29%
One-person households, count	not pinned	39.7 million
Median age at first marriage, men	23.5	30.8
Median age at first marriage, women	21.1	28.4

One more term helps here.

The median age at first marriage is the middle age at which people marry for the first time, so that half of first marriages happen at a younger age and half at an older age.

Worked example — the household shares, read four ways. Take the five steps in order.

What is measured? You are reading the share of U.S. households of each type, from the Census Bureau's 2025 Families and Living Arrangements release.
Over whom? Your population is U.S. households in 2025 compared with 1975. The shares are shares of households, not of people, so a household of one and a household of six each count once.
What does it show? Work it one step at a time.
- Married-couple households: 47% of households in 2025 against 66% in 1975.
- The change: 66 − 47 = 19 percentage points lower, and 19 ÷ 66 × 100 ≈ 28.8, so the share in 2025 was about 28.8 percent smaller than in 1975.
- One-person households: 29% of households in 2025, which was 39.7 million households, written out as 39,700,000, against 20% in 1975.
- The change: 29 − 20 = 9 percentage points higher, and 9 ÷ 20 × 100 = 45, so the share was 45 percent larger than in 1975.
- Count to base: 39.7 million households were 29% of all households, so 39.7 ÷ 29 × 100 ≈ 137, about 137 million U.S. households in 2025, or about 137,000,000.
What does it not show? Why the composition changed, whether any household is better or worse off, any divorce rate, or anything about you or any one family. And you cannot read a smaller married-couple share as fewer families, because a family household can be a single parent with children, and a one-person household is a household but not a family.
Correlation or cause? Neither. You are reading descriptions of how households were made up in two years.

Worked example — the median ages, read the same way. You use the same questions on a second figure.

What is measured? The median age at first marriage, for men and for women.
What does it show?
- Men: 30.8 in 2025 against 23.5 in 1975, so 30.8 − 23.5 = 7.3 years later.
- Women: 28.4 in 2025 against 21.1 in 1975, so 28.4 − 21.1 = 7.3 years later.
- The gap between men and women: you subtract within each year, 30.8 − 28.4 = 2.4 years in 2025 and 23.5 − 21.1 = 2.4 years in 1975, so both medians moved later by the same amount.
What does it not show? A later median age at first marriage describes when people marry, not whether they marry.
Correlation or cause? Neither; it is a description of timing.

In words: married-couple households went from about two in three homes to fewer than half, living alone became more common, and first marriages now come about seven years later for both men and women. None of these figures says why.

Put the two key shares side by side: 47% versus 66% is a drop of 19 percentage points, and 29% versus 20% is a share 1.45 times as large. A housing agency planning new apartments would build different mixes of one-bedroom and family units depending on which share it read. That is the practical stake in reading the measure.

In practice (your tools). You can check every step in a free spreadsheet. Type 66 in A1 and 47 in A2. In A3, type =A1-A2 to get 19, the drop in percentage points, and in A4, type =A3/A1*100 to get about 28.8, the percent change. Type 39.7 in B1 and 29 in B2. In B3, type =B1/B2*100 to get about 136.9, which rounds to the 137 million households.

Misconception check — "fewer married-couple households means fewer families." Students often read the drop from 66% to 47% as a drop in families. It is tempting, because a married couple is the picture most people hold of a family. But the figure is a share of households, not a count of families, and a single parent with children is a family household too. The cure: say what is being counted, households, before saying what changed.

Misconception check — "people no longer marry." Students also read the rise from 23.5 to 30.8 as proof that marriage is disappearing. A median age describes when first marriages happen, not whether they happen. The cure: say "later," not "never."

Memory hook: shares of homes, not of people; later, not never.

8. Weigh decline against change: one trend, two readings

You now have one set of facts: fewer married-couple households, later first marriages, and more people living alone. You and every sociologist can agree on the figures. They disagree about what the figures mean, and the disagreement is a real one.

The decline view is the interpretation that reads fewer married-couple households, later marriage, and more people living alone as a weakening of the family as an institution.
The change view is the interpretation that reads fewer married-couple households, later marriage, and more people living alone as the family taking new and more varied forms rather than weakening.

Each view has real strength. The decline view points out that fewer homes hold a married couple and more people live alone, and it asks whether the family's jobs from Section 4, such as socialization and support, are left to fewer and weaker units. The change view points out that people still form families, on a later schedule and in more shapes, such as cohabiting couples, single-parent homes, and extended families under one roof, and it reads that variety as the institution adapting. This course presents both and declares no winner; you weigh them on evidence.

Worked example — one trend, two readings. Take the rise in one-person households from 20% to 29%.

The decline view. More people living alone means fewer people living inside a family's daily support.
The change view. Many people living alone may still be closely tied to kin elsewhere, and living alone may be one stage in a longer life course rather than a retreat from family.
What the data settle. The share rose by 9 percentage points. The data describe; the two views interpret.

Limitation: this course pins no divorce rate. A divorce figure is easy to misquote and changes with how it is measured, so it is read at its source or not asserted. The Readings & Resources page points to sources for anyone who wants to look further.

Misconception check — the trend as a verdict. Students often read the household figures as proof of decline, or as proof that nothing important has changed. Both moves treat a description as a judgment. The cure: state the figure, then state each view's reading of it, and say which sentence is the data and which is the interpretation.

Memory hook: the data describe; the perspectives interpret.

For more on this week's ideas, the module's Readings & Resources page links to short articles and videos.

Key terms

Family — A group that a society recognizes as kin, linked by birth, marriage, partnership, or adoption, whose members usually share emotional bonds and economic support. (first used: 1. See the family: a tie a society recognizes)
Kinship — The web of relationships that a society counts as relatives, built from ties of birth, marriage, partnership, and adoption. (first used: 1. See the family: a tie a society recognizes)
Social institution — A lasting, organized arrangement that a society builds to meet shared needs, such as the family, schooling, religion, the economy, or government. (first used: 1. See the family: a tie a society recognizes)
Family of orientation — The family a person is born or adopted into and grows up in. (first used: 2. Name the two families in one life: orientation and procreation)
Family of procreation — The family a person forms as an adult, through a partnership, a marriage, or raising children. (first used: 2. Name the two families in one life: orientation and procreation)
Nuclear family — A family made up of one or two parents and their children living together. (first used: 2. Name the two families in one life: orientation and procreation)
Extended family — A family that adds other relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins, to the parents and children, living together or sharing daily support. (first used: 2. Name the two families in one life: orientation and procreation)
Marriage — A socially recognized union between partners that carries rights and duties toward each other and toward any children they raise. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Monogamy — A marriage pattern in which a person is married to one spouse at a time. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Polygamy — A marriage pattern in which a person is married to more than one spouse at a time, in the form of polygyny or polyandry. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Polygyny — The form of polygamy in which one husband is married to several wives at the same time. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Polyandry — The form of polygamy in which one wife is married to several husbands at the same time. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Endogamy — A marriage pattern in which people marry within their own social group, such as their own religion, class, or community. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Exogamy — A marriage pattern in which people marry outside their own social group, such as outside their own kin group. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Incest taboo — The prohibition on sex and marriage between close relatives, with each society drawing its own line around which relatives are too close. (first used: 3. Sort the marriage patterns: one spouse, several, inside, outside)
Cohabitation — Two partners living together as a couple in one home without being married. (first used: 5. Run one marriage decision through the lenses: cohabitation)
Household — In the Census Bureau's count, all the people who live in one housing unit, whether or not they are related to one another. (first used: 6. Tell a household from a family: the Census Bureau's count)
Family household — In the Census Bureau's count, a household maintained by a person who lives with at least one relative by birth, marriage, or adoption. (first used: 6. Tell a household from a family: the Census Bureau's count)
Nonfamily household — In the Census Bureau's count, a household of one person living alone or of a person living only with people who are not related to them. (first used: 6. Tell a household from a family: the Census Bureau's count)
Married-couple household — In the Census Bureau's count, a household in which the person who maintains the home lives with a spouse. (first used: 6. Tell a household from a family: the Census Bureau's count)
One-person household — A household made up of a single person living alone, which the Census Bureau counts as a household but not as a family. (first used: 6. Tell a household from a family: the Census Bureau's count)
Median age at first marriage — The middle age at which people marry for the first time, so that half of first marriages happen at a younger age and half at an older age. (first used: 7. Read the household figures: 1975 and 2025, four ways)
Decline view — The interpretation that reads fewer married-couple households, later marriage, and more people living alone as a weakening of the family as an institution. (first used: 8. Weigh decline against change: one trend, two readings)
Change view — The interpretation that reads fewer married-couple households, later marriage, and more people living alone as the family taking new and more varied forms rather than weakening. (first used: 8. Weigh decline against change: one trend, two readings)

Summary

A family is a tie a society recognizes; its form varies across cultures and over time.
You grow up in a family of orientation and may form a family of procreation.
Monogamy is one spouse at a time; polygyny and polyandry are two different forms of polygamy.
Endogamy marries inside the group; exogamy marries outside it.
Functionalism names the family's jobs, conflict theory its inequalities, and interactionism its meanings.
A household is everyone in one home; a family needs relatives.
Married-couple households fell from 66% to 47% of households, 1975 to 2025.
First marriages came about 7.3 years later for both men and women.
The decline view and the change view read the same trend; the course declares no winner.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

An illustrative apartment building holds 40 households. Of them, 14 are one person living alone, 6 are unrelated roommates, and 20 are people living with relatives. What share of the building's households are one-person households, and how many of the 40 households are family households?
In an illustrative county, the share of households made up of one person rose from 15% to 21% over twenty years. By how many percentage points did it rise, and by what percent?
Name the marriage pattern in each case: (a) a society where a woman may have two husbands at once; (b) a rule that members of a professional guild marry other guild members; (c) a person who has one spouse at a time.
In an illustrative town, the median age at first marriage rose from 24.5 to 27.0. A neighbor says, "So fewer people here get married now." What can the figure tell you, and what can it not?

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

One-person households: 14 ÷ 40 × 100 = 35, so 35% of the building's households. Family households are the homes where people live with relatives: 20 of the 40. The 14 people living alone and the 6 roommate households are nonfamily households, so 14 + 6 + 20 = 40 checks the total.
21 − 15 = 6 percentage points. As a percent change, 6 ÷ 15 × 100 = 40 percent. Both are true at once, and the unit tells the reader which one you mean.
(a) Polyandry, one wife with several husbands, a form of polygamy. (b) Endogamy, marrying inside one's own group. (c) Monogamy.
The median rose by 27.0 − 24.5 = 2.5 years, so the middle first marriage now comes later. The figure says nothing about how many people marry; a median age describes timing, so the neighbor has read "later" as "never."

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, the quiz, the discussion, and the assignment — and next week the same three lenses turn to schools and congregations, with Merton's manifest and latent functions as the model.

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