Patterns of household and family structures, drawn from the Austrian census 1910. A regional and socio-economic comparison

Peter Teibenbacher, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

Within MOSAIC-project (MPIDR) a sample of communities, covering the recent Austrian territory in 1910 was compiled. A database in SPSS-format was created, containing the lists of persons as registered in the census 1910, following their assignment to communities, houses, households and families. With the help of this database it is possible to examine size and personal composition of households resp families. The main questions are: can we detect significant regional patterns in household resp. family structures and can we prove if these patterns are in line with differences in regional socio-economic structures? To which extent are general categories like "agrarian" and "industrial" sufficient to explain differences in these patterns or do we have to differentiate variations like pasturing and arable economies or light and heavy industry resp. small and large farms, workers households and those of white-collars, craftsmen etc.? Can we prove if there were regional patterns, driven by dominating socio-economic groups, if there was a kind of communicative and imitating across-effect or did "agriculture" always differ from "industry" or "service"? Can we find thus regional patterns, socio-economic patterns or regional socio-economic patterns?