CORESIDENCE: National and subnational data on household size and composition around the world, 1964–2021

Abstract

The CORESIDENCE Database (CoDB) represents a significant advancement in the field of family studies, addressing existing data gaps and facilitating comprehensive analysis of households’ composition and living arrangements at the national and subnational levels. This article introduces the CoDB, developed for the ERC project Intergenerational Coresidence in Global Perspective: Dimensions of Change. The database draws on global-scale individual microdata from four main repositories and national household surveys, encompassing over 150 million individual records representing more than 98% of the world’s population. The CoDB provides datasets at the national, subnational, and subnational-harmonized levels, covering 156 countries, 3950 regions, and 1511 harmonized regions for the period 1964–2021. It includes 146 indicators on household composition and family arrangements, allowing researchers to explore intergenerational co-residence patterns, gender dynamics within households, and longitudinal trends in living arrangements. The CoDB fills an important gap in comparative household studies, enabling researchers to undertake ground breaking research at both macro and micro levels, ultimately fostering a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics of family structures and living arrangements.