7th Australasian Housing Researchers’ Conference: Refereed Proceedings

Since 1981, the number of Australians living in a multigenerational household increased by nearly one million nationwide, so that one in five Australians now lives in a multigenerational household. This paper draws upon a detailed analysis of customised Australian Census data (1981-2011) and the preliminary results of a survey to showcase the changing profiles of households where multiple generations of related adults cohabit in the cities of Sydney and Brisbane, and discusses the reasons for their cohabitation.The paper reports that that forms multigenerational households take in Australia are much more varied than two-generational households where adult children have remained at home, which have been the subject of the majority of academic interest in multigenerational households to date (e.g. Cobb-Clark & Ribar 2009; Gee et al. 2003).The Census analysis provides an important overview of multigenerational households in Australian cities, with a particular focus on the influence of ethno-cultural background on the likelihood of families cohabiting, and the availability of housing on the types and locations of the dwellings they commonly reside in. The preliminary survey findings presented add further nuance to the discussion and demonstrate that the reasons for multigenerational cohabitation are complex and varied, as are the experiences of living in such households.The paper concludes with a discussion of how these findings contribute to the development of a more comprehensive understanding of the extent and nature of multigenerational cohabitation in Australian cities, the complexity of the reasons for and experiences of multigenerational cohabitation, and the implications of these findings for extending our understandings of the role of structural changes, changing social views and public policies on the form and nature of Australian households