Household Size in Wisconsin Creating a Mismatch in Housing Available and What's Needed to Meet Shifting Demographics

Friday, November 3rd, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(By Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) The average household size in Wisconsin, like the country overall, has been falling for decades, creating a mismatch between the types of housing available and what’s needed to meet shifting demographics.

According to Joe Schulz with Wisconsin Public Radio, that’s according to a new report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which found the state’s decline in household size has been more pronounced than the nation as a whole.

In 1970, an average 3.22 people lived in each Wisconsin home, while the country’s average was 3.11. By 2020, Wisconsin’s average household size was 2.36 people and the nation’s was 2.55. Longer life expectancies and declining marriage rates fueled the decline, according to the report.

Researchers found that states with older populations tended to have smaller household sizes. In 2020, Utah had the youngest median population age and the largest average household size, while Wisconsin had the 13th highest median population age and the sixth lowest median household size.

"That's a contributing factor because as people get later on in life, they typically live in smaller households," said Mark Sommerhauser, communications director for Wisconsin Policy Forum.

Nationally, the report says 35 percent of Americans between 25 and 50 years old had never been married as of 2018. In 1970, that number was 9 percent. "That's just a really stark sort of cultural shift in America, and it's another thing that I think is contributing to smaller average households," Sommerhauser said.

Wisconsin has had a higher share of one-person households than the nation since 2000. That year, 26.8 percent of Wisconsin households only had one person and the country had 25.8 percent.

As of 2020, 30 percent of Wisconsin homes were one-person households and 27.6 percent for the country. According to the report, that's left the state with a mismatch in the types of housing available and what’s needed.

The median year in which Wisconsin housing was built in 1974, when the state had fewer one-person households than it does today. And nearly 19 percent of Wisconsin’s housing units were built before 1940.

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