household and family data. Specifically, the Census Bureau has discontinued its longtime practice of always classifying the husband as the reference person (head) when he and his wife are living together.

In this report, the term "householder" is used in the presentation of data that had previously been presented with the designation "head." The householder is the first adult household member listed on the questionnaire. The instructions call for listing first the person (or one of the persons) in whose name the home is owned or rented. If a home is owned jointly by a married couple, either the husband or the wife may be listed first, thereby becoming the reference person, or householder, to whom the relationship of other household members is to be recorded.

Reference person. The reference person is the person to whom the relationship of other persons is recorded. The household reference person is the person listed as the householder (see definition of "Householder"). The subfamily reference person is the single parent or the husband/wife in a married-couple situation. (Prior to 1989, the husband was always designated the reference person in a married-couple subfamily.)

Family household. A family household is a household maintained by a family (as defined above), and any unrelated persons (unrelated subfamily members and/or secondary individuals) who maybe residing there are included. The number of family households is equal to the number of families. The count of family household members differs from the count of family members, however, in that the family household members include all persons living in the household, whereas family members include only the householder and his/her relatives. (See the definition of Family.) Related subfamily. A related subfamily is a married couple with or without children, or one parent with one or more own single (never married) children under 18 years old, living in a household and related to, but not including, the persons or couple who maintains the household. The most common example of a related subfamily is a young married couple sharing the home of the husband's or wife's parents. The number of related subfamilies is not included in the count of families.

Unrelated subfamily. An unrelated subfamily (formerly called a secondary family) is a married couple with or without children, or a single parent with one or more of their own never-married children under 18 years old living in a household, none of whom are related to the householder. The unrelated subfamily may include persons such as guests, partners, roomers, boarders, or resident employees and their spouses and/or children. The number of unrelated subfamily members is included in the total number of household members, but is not included in the count of family members.

Beginning in 1989, persons in unrelated subfamilies other than the reference person, spouse, and own children are counted as secondary individuals in households. Prior to 1989, these persons were included in the count of subfamily members.

Persons living with relatives in group quarters were formerly classified as members of unrelated subfamilies. However, the number of such unrelated subfamilies became so small (37,000 in 1967) that beginning with CPS data for 1968 (and beginning with census data for 1960) the Bureau of the Census included persons in these unrelated subfamilies in the count of secondary individuals.

Married couple. A married couple, as defined for census purposes, is a husband and wife enumerated as members of the same household. The married couple may or may not have children living with them. The expression "husband-wife" or "married- couple" before the term "household," "family," or "subfamily" indicates that the household, family, or subfamily is maintained by a husband and wife. The number of married couples equals the count of married-couple families plus related and unrelated married-couple subfamilies. Unrelated individuals. Unrelated individuals are persons of any age (other than inmates of institutions) who are not living with any relatives. An unrelated individual may be (1) a person living alone or with non-relatives only, (2) a roomer, boarder, or resident employee with no relatives in the household, or (3) a group quarters member who has no relatives living with him/her. Thus, a widow who occupies her house alone or with one or more other persons not related to her, a roomer not related to anyone else in the housing unit, a maid living as a member of her employer's household with no relatives in the household, and a resident staff member in a hospital living apart from any relatives are all examples of unrelated individuals.

Nonfamily householder. A nonfamily householder (formerly called a primary individual) is a person maintaining a household while living alone or with non-relatives only.

Secondary individual. A secondary individual is a person in a household or group quarters such as a guest, roomer, boarder, or resident employee (excluding non-family householders and inmates of institutions) who is not related to any other person in the household or group quarters. (See section on unrelated subfamily for slight change in coverage of secondary individuals in 1968.)

Own children and related children. "Own" children in a family are sons and daughters, including stepchildren and adopted children, of the householder. Similarly, "own" children in a subfamily are sons and daughters of

the married couple or parent in the subfamily. (All children shown as members of related subfamilies are own children of the person(s) maintaining the subfamily.) "Related" children in a family include own children and all other children in the household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. For each type of family unit identified in the CPS, the count of own children under 18 years old is limited to single (never married) children; however, "own children under 25" and "own children of any age," as the terms are used here, include all children regardless of marital status. The totals include never-married children living away from home in college dormitories.

Educational Attainment. Beginning in January 1992, the Current Population Survey (CPS) began using an educational attainment question similar to that used in the 1990 Decennial Census of Population and Housing. This section briefly discusses the form of the new question, some of the motivating factors behind the change, and addresses some of the concerns data users may have regarding the change.

The educational attainment item used in the CPS prior to 1992 has been virtually unchanged since the 1940's. This item was a two-part question which allowed the respondent to report the highest grade that was attended and whether the grade was completed.

The new educational attainment question introduced in January 1992 differs from the old question in the following manner:

⚫ a single question is now asked

• Response categories for lower levels of schooling have been collapsed into several summary categories

• a new category, "12th grade, no Diploma," has been added

• beginning with the response, "High School Graduatehigh school diploma or equivalent (for example GED)," the categories identify specific degree completion levels, rather than years of school completed.

The focus of the question remains "regular" schooling, that is schooling which is part of the collegiate system. No attempt has been made to incorporate post secondary educational attainment from institutions other than the regular college system.

Why was the educational attainment item changed? The answer is a combination of factors, most motivated by a series of analyses on the old item and possible new alternatives, conducted during the 1980's by the Education and Social Stratification Branch of the U.S. Census Bureau. These analyses are documented in a series of papers and memoranda (Kominski, 1985; Siegel and Kominski, 1986; Kominski and Siegel, 1987; Kominski 1988). The main factors identified by this research are:

1. The misclassification of years of schooling completed into degrees

2. the inability to identify specific degrees

3. uncertainty in the classification of high school graduates.

4. programmatic and legislative data needs

The change in the collection of data on educational attainment raises some concern. One concern is the loss in continuity with a time series that dates back as much as 50 years. The meaning of the old question itself, however, has not remained constant over the past 50 years that is in fact a primary reason why it needed to be changed. Reports of "years of schooling completed" do not mean the same thing now as they did in 1940. In 1940 for example, we could say with a high degree of certainty that a person completing 4 years of college received a Bachelor's degree, we do not have the same level of certainty for data collected in 1990. To use the old item today and benchmark it against 1940 is misleading, with the problem becoming more serious with each passing year.

The new item, on the other hand, does allow comparable construction of many of the educational attainment concepts and benchmarks that are frequently used in research, analysis and legislation. Persons with less than a high school diploma, for example, can be easily identified, including the 12th grade "completers" who are not graduates. Persons with less than (or more than) a Bachelor's degree can also be determined, as can those who have attained a Bachelor's as their highest degree. In this respect the new item will provide better year-to-year comparability, since it relies on known degree attainment, not a translation of years to degrees.

The following table shows educational attainment for March 1991 and March 1992 and results from both the new and the old question for all persons, Hispanic persons, not Hispanic persons and White not Hispanic persons 25 years of age and older. Under the old question, the levels of educational attainment read: "Less than 5 years of school", "4 years of high school or more", and "4 years of college or more". Under the new question, the levels of educational attainment are described as follows: "Less than 5th grade education", "High school graduate or more", and "Bachelor's degree or more".

Labor force. Persons are classified as in the labor force if they were employed as civilians, unemployed, or in the Armed Forces during the survey week. The "civilian labor force" is comprised of all civilians 15 years old and over classified as employed or unemployed.

Paid labor force. Persons are classified as in the paid labor force if they were employed as wage and salary workers or self-employed workers during the survey week or were looking for work at the time and had last worked as wage and salary or self-employed workers. Employed. Employed persons comprise (1) all civilians who, during the survey week, did any work at all as paid employees or in their own business or profession, or on their own farm, or who worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers on a farm or in a business operated by a member of the family, and (2) all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of illness, bad weather, vacation, or labor-management dispute, or because they were taking time off for personal reasons, whether or not they were paid by their employers for time off, and whether or not they were seeking other jobs. Excluded from the employed group are persons whose only activity consisted of work around the house (such as own home housework, painting or repairing own. home) or volunteer work for religious, charitable, and similar organizations.

Unemployed. Unemployed persons are those civilians who, during the survey week, had no employment but were available for work and (1) had engaged in any specific job seeking activity within the past 4 weeks, such as registering at a public or private employment office, meeting with prospective employers, checking with friends or relatives, placing or answering advertisements, writing letters of application, or being on a union or professional register; (2) were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off; or (3) were waiting to report to a new wage or salary job within 30 days.

Occupation. The data on occupation of employed persons 16 years old and over refer to the civilian job held during the survey week. Persons employed at two or more jobs were reported in the job at which they worked the greatest number of hours during the week.

In 1980, the Bureau of the Census revised the Standard Occupational Classification System (SOC) for use in its tabulation program for the 1980 census and subsequent published reports on occupational data. Consequently, the new classification system was incorporated into the CPS tabulation program in January 1983. While the new system provides comparability between the CPS and other data sources, it causes a break in continuity for all CPS series containing occupational data.

Differences between the 1970 and 1980 occupational systems affect classifications at all levels. Such commonly used identifiers as white-collar, blue-collar, professional and technical, craft workers, and operative Occupations have been eliminated. These identifiers have been replaced with new categories which represent conceptual as well as language changes. Moreover, many of the components of the former groupings have been shifted to such an extent that they cannot be made to correspond readily to the new categories. For a more complete explanation and description of the changes from the old to the new occupational classification system see the February 1983 issue of "Employment and Earnings" by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The occupation classification system developed for the 1980 census consists of 503 specific occupation categories arranged into 6 summary and 13 major occupation groups. The major occupation groups are combined in this report into 6 summary groups as follows:

Managerial and professional specialty occupations

Executive, administrative, and managerial occupations

Professional specialty occupations

Technical, sales, and administrative support occupations

Technicians, and related support occupations
Sales occupations

Administrative support occupations, including clerical

Service occupations

Private household occupations
Protective service occupations

Service occupations, except protective and household

Farming, forestry, and fishing occupations

Precision production, craft, and repair occupations
Operators, fabricators, and laborers

Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors
Transportation and material moving occupations
Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers

Part-time or full-time employment. Defined as follows: part-time indicates less than 35 hours of work per week in a majority of the weeks worked during the year. Full-time indicates 35 hours or more per week during a majority of the weeks worked.

Year-round, full-time. Indicates 50 or more weeks of full-time employment during the previous calendar year. Money Income. This is defined as the algebraic sum of money wages and salaries and income other than earnings. Data on consumer income collected in the CPS by the Bureau of the Census cover money income received (exclusive of certain money receipts such as

capital gains) before payments for personal income taxes, Social Security, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. Therefore, money income data do not reflect the fact that some families receive part of their income in the form of noncash benefits such as food stamps, health benefits, and subsidized housing; that some farm families receive noncash benefits in the form of rentfree housing and goods produced and consumed on the farm; or that non-cash benefits are also received by some nonfarm residents which often take the form of the use of business transportation and facilities, full or partial payments by business for retirement programs, and medical and educational expenses, etc. These elements should be considered when comparing income levels. (For a detailed explanation of noncash benefits, see Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 182RD, Measuring the Effect of Benefits and Taxes on Income and Poverty: 1979 to 1991.)

Moreover, for many different reasons, there is a tendency in household surveys for respondents to underreport their income. From an analysis of independently derived income estimates, it has been determined that income earned from wages or salaries is much better reported than other sources of income, and is nearly equal to independent estimates of aggregate income. For a detailed explanation, see Current Population Reports, Series P-60 No.180, Money Income of Households, Families, and Persons in the United States: 1991.

For each person 15 years old and over in the sample, questions were asked on the amount of money income received in the preceding calendar year from each of the following sources: (1) money wages or salary; (2) net income from nonfarm self- employment; (3) net income from farm self-employment; (4) Social Security or railroad retirement; (5) Supplemental Security income; (6) public assistance or welfare payments; (7) interest (on savings or other investments which pay interest); (8) dividends, income from estates or trusts, or net rental income; (9) veterans' payments or unemployment and worker's compensation; (10) private pensions or government employee pensions; (11) alimony or child support, regular contributions from persons not living in the household, and other periodic income.

Although the income statistics refer to receipts during the preceding year the characteristics of the person, such as age, labor force status, etc., and the composition of families refer to the time of the survey. The income of the family does not include amounts received by persons who were members of the family during all or part of the income year if these persons no longer resided with the family at the time of enumeration. However, family income includes amounts reported by related persons who did not reside with the family during the income year but who were members of the family at the time of enumeration.

Receipts from the following sources are not included as income: (1) money received from the sale of property, such as stocks, bonds, a house, or a car (unless the persons was engaged in the business of selling such property, in which case the net proceeds would be counted as income from self-employment); (2) withdrawals of bank deposits; (3) money borrowed; (4) tax refunds; (5) gifts; and (6) lump-sum inheritances or insurance payments.

Money earnings. Money earnings are the algebraic sum of money wages or salary and net income from farm and nonfarm self-employment. For a detailed explanation, see Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 180, Money Income of Households, Families, and Persons in the United States: 1991.

Number of earners. This number includes all persons in the family with $1 or more in wages and salaries, or $1 or more or a loss in net income from farm or nonfarm self-employment.

Poverty definition. Families and unrelated individuals are classified as being above or below the poverty level using the poverty index originated at the Social Security Administration in 1964 and revised by Federal Interagency Committees in 1969 and 1980. The poverty index is based solely on money income and does not reflect the fact that many low-income persons receive noncash benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid, and public housing. The index is based on the Department of Agriculture's 1961 Economy Food Plan and reflects the different consumption requirements of families based on their size and composition. It was determined from the Department of Agriculture's 1955 Survey of Food

Consumption that families of three or more persons spend approximately one-third of their income on food; the poverty level for these families was, therefore, set at three times the cost of the Economy Food Plan.

For smaller families and persons living alone, the cost of the Economy Food Plan was multiplied by factors that were slightly higher in order to compensate for the relatively larger fixed expenses of these smaller households. The poverty thresholds are updated every year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). For example, the average poverty threshold for a family of four was $13,924 in 1991, $13.359 in 1990, and $12,674 in 1989. For a detailed explanation of the poverty definition, see Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 181, Poverty in the United States: 1991.

Median. The median is presented in connection with the data on age, years of school completed, and income. It is the value which divides the distribution into two equal parts, one-half of the cases falling below this value and one-half of the cases exceeding this value.

Mean. The mean (average) is presented in connection with data on number of persons per family, income of persons, and income of households and families. The mean number of persons per family is the value obtained by dividing the number of persons in families having the characteristic under consideration by the appropriate number of families. The mean income is the amount obtained by dividing the total income of a group by the number of units in that group. The mean for persons are based on persons with income. The mean for households are based on all households. The mean for families are based on all families.