# Food Security Fridays — Week 12: Household Complexity Reproducibility Package

## "Food Insecurity Is a Nuclear Family Problem"
### Who's Actually Sitting at the Table?

**Author:** Matthew P. Rabbitt, PhD
**Date:** April 2026
**Series:** Food Security Fridays

---

## Overview

This post disaggregates food insecurity rates by non-standard household
types that are rarely examined in food security research: multigenerational
households, grandfamilies (skipped-generation), extended-kin households,
cohabiting couples, sibling co-residence, and unrelated co-residents
(roommates/boarders). Household types are constructed from the PERRP
(relationship to reference person) variable in the CPS, which codes 20
distinct relationship categories.

## Contents

| File | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `fsf_week12_reproducibility.do` | Self-contained Stata analysis (8 tables) |
| `cpsdec2024.do` | CPS-FSS data cleaning program |
| `fsf_week12_README.md` | This file |

## Data Requirements

- **December 2024 CPS Food Security Supplement** raw data file (`dec24pub.dat`)
- Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey
- Available at: https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/cps/cps-supp_cps-repwgt/cps-food-security.html

## Instructions

1. Run `cpsdec2024.do` to produce `cpsdec2024.dta` from the raw ASCII file
2. Update the `$rawdata` and `$projdir` paths in `fsf_week12_reproducibility.do`
3. Run `fsf_week12_reproducibility.do`

The analysis log and any output files will be saved to `$projdir/output/`.

## Analysis Tables

| Table | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| 1 | Prevalence of household types (weighted counts and shares) |
| 2 | Food insecurity rates by detailed household type |
| 3 | Non-standard vs. standard households (headline comparison) |
| 4 | Cohabiting vs. married couples with children |
| 5 | Decomposition of "complex" household category |
| 6 | SNAP participation by household type (among food-insecure) |
| 7 | Immigrant-headed household analysis |
| 8 | Summary statistics for infographic |

## Key Variables

### Household type indicators (constructed from PERRP codes)

| Variable | PERRP Code(s) | Description |
|----------|---------------|-------------|
| `multigen` | 49, 50 | Multigenerational: grandchild or parent of ref person present |
| `grandfamily` | 49 (no 48) | Skipped generation: grandchild present, no own child of ref |
| `has_otherrel` | 52 | Extended kin: other relative (aunt, uncle, cousin, in-law) |
| `has_sibling` | 51 | Brother/sister of reference person |
| `cohabit` | 43, 44, 46, 47 | Unmarried partner (opposite-sex or same-sex) |
| `has_unrelated` | 54-59 | Housemate, roommate, boarder, or nonrelative |
| `immigrant_hh` | PRCITSHP 4,5 | Reference person is foreign-born |
| `mixed_status` | PRCITSHP | Immigrant ref + native-born children |

### PERRP codes (relationship to reference person)

| Code | Relationship |
|------|-------------|
| 40 | Reference person with relatives |
| 41 | Reference person without relatives |
| 42 | Opposite-sex spouse |
| 43 | Opposite-sex partner with relatives |
| 44 | Opposite-sex partner without relatives |
| 45 | Same-sex spouse |
| 46 | Same-sex partner with relatives |
| 47 | Same-sex partner without relatives |
| 48 | Child |
| 49 | Grandchild |
| 50 | Parent |
| 51 | Brother/sister |
| 52 | Other relative of reference person |
| 53 | Foster child |
| 54 | Housemate/roommate with relatives |
| 55 | Housemate/roommate without relatives |
| 56 | Roomer/boarder with relatives |
| 57 | Roomer/boarder without relatives |
| 58 | Nonrelative with relatives |
| 59 | Nonrelative without relatives |

### Detailed household typology (mutually exclusive)

Categories are assigned hierarchically — earlier categories take
precedence when a household qualifies for multiple types:

1. Multigenerational (3+ generations, middle generation present)
2. Grandfamily (skipped generation)
3. Extended kin
4. Sibling co-residence
5. Cohabiting with children
6. Cohabiting, no children
7. Unrelated co-residents
8. Married couple with children
9. Single parent
10. Married couple, no children
11. Living alone
12. Other

## Key Statistics

| Finding | Value | Source Table |
|---------|-------|-------------|
| Overall food insecurity rate | 13.7% | Table 8 |
| Food-insecure households | 18.3M | Table 8 |
| Non-standard HH share | 19.2% (25.8M) | Table 8 |
| Non-standard HH FI rate | 17.8% | Table 3 |
| Grandfamily FI rate | 23.6% (N=268) | Table 2 |
| Cohabiting w/ children FI rate | 23.9% | Table 2 |
| Multigenerational FI rate | 18.5% | Table 2 |
| Extended-kin FI rate | 18.3% | Table 2 |
| Unrelated co-residents FI rate | 18.3% | Table 2 |
| Sibling co-residence FI rate | 18.0% | Table 2 |
| Cohabiting no children FI rate | 13.2% | Table 2 |
| Married w/ children FI rate | 10.0% | Table 2 |
| Married no children FI rate | 5.8% | Table 2 |
| Single parent FI rate | 38.3% | Table 2 |
| Cohabitation gap (paired comparison) | 2.3x (23.9% vs. 10.4%) | Table 4 |
| SNAP if FI, cohabiting w/ children | 46.7% | Table 6 |
| SNAP if FI, married w/ children | 27.1% | Table 6 |
| Multigenerational + grandfamily HHs | 8.6M (7.7M + 0.9M) | Table 1 |
| Immigrant-headed HH FI rate | 15.8% | Table 7 |
| Native-headed HH FI rate | 13.3% | Table 7 |
| Mixed-status family FI rate | 19.1% | Table 7 |
| SNAP if FI, immigrant-headed | 28.4% | Table 7 |
| SNAP if FI, native-headed | 36.1% | Table 7 |
| Supplement-interviewed HHs | 32,719 | Section 9 |
| HHs with food security status | 32,655 | Table 1 |

## Methodological Notes

- **Household definition**: The CPS defines a household as all persons
  sharing a housing unit. This differs from the SNAP "household"
  definition (persons who purchase and prepare food together). A single
  CPS household may contain multiple SNAP units.

- **Multigenerational identification**: Conservative — requires PERRP=49
  (grandchild) or PERRP=50 (parent of reference person). May miss
  arrangements where relationship coding is ambiguous.

- **Food security status**: Uses the pre-constructed HRFS12M1 variable
  from the CPS-FSS microdata (3-category: 1=Food Secure/High/Marginal,
  2=Low Food Security, 3=Very Low Food Security). This variable correctly
  classifies screened-out households as food secure. High and Marginal
  food security are collapsed into a single category.

- **Weights**: All estimates use household supplement weights (HHSUPWGT).
  Census stores weights as integers × 10,000 (4 implied decimals); the
  analysis divides by 10,000 to obtain actual weights. Weighted population
  counts use `sum(hhsupwtk)` (weight / 1,000,000 for thousands), not
  `tab [aw=]`, which normalizes frequencies to the unweighted sample size.
  One observation per household (reference person preferred, then lowest
  PERRP code).

- **Verification against ERR-358**: Total weighted households (134,062K),
  food-insecure households (18,340K), and the "living alone" count
  (40,323K) match the published ERR-358 Table 1A and Table 2 exactly.
  Differences in other categories (e.g., married couples with children:
  21,199K here vs. 24,051K in ERR-358) reflect the mutually exclusive
  typology — households classified as multigenerational, extended-kin, etc.
  are removed from the married-couple count.

- **Cohabiting partners**: Identified by PERRP codes 43, 44, 46, 47
  (opposite-sex and same-sex partners with/without relatives). This
  captures only partners of the reference person; if a subfamily contains
  a cohabiting couple, they may be coded differently.

- **Grandfamily caution**: The grandfamily estimate (N=268 unweighted)
  has a standard error of roughly 2.5–3 pp before design effects.
  Interpret with caution.

- **SNAP household definition**: SNAP uses the "purchase and prepare food
  together" criterion, which may differ from the Census Bureau's household
  definition (all persons sharing a housing unit). Some CPS "households"
  may contain multiple SNAP units, and food security status is measured at
  the CPS household level, not the SNAP unit level.

## Software

- Stata 14 or later
- No additional packages required

## References

Rabbitt, M.P., Reed-Jones, M., Hales, L.J., Suttles, S., & Burke, M.P.
(2025). *Household food security in the United States in 2024* (Report
No. ERR-358). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details?pubid=113622

Pew Research Center (2022). "Financial Issues Top the List of Reasons
U.S. Adults Live in Multigenerational Homes."
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/03/24/financial-issues-top-the-list-of-reasons-u-s-adults-live-in-multigenerational-homes/

## Citation

Rabbitt, Matthew P. 2026. "Food Security Fridays — Who's Actually
Sitting at the Table?" Food Security Fridays series.
https://matthewpatrickrabbitt.com/food-security-fridays.html