Nevada households most nontraditional in nation

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 11:06 a.m.

Nevada last year had the nation's highest percentage of households whose occupants were unrelated and also ranked high in other nontraditional household categories.

A report released today based on the 2000 Census revealed that 8.8 percent of Nevada's households contained two or more unrelated persons, tops in a nation that averaged 6.1 percent.

A Henderson church pastor insisted that the Las Vegas Valley is strengthening in terms of family values. But state demographer Jeff Hardcastle said economic reasons may explain why Nevada has become a leader in nontraditional households.

Nevada tied Alaska with the nation's highest percentage of family households headed by males with no spouse present at 5.5 percent, compared to a 4.2 percent national average. Nevada also ranked fourth highest in the nation behind Alaska, Vermont and Maine with 7.2 percent of its households containing unmarried partners. The national average was 5.2 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, Nevada ranked 46th with only 49.7 percent of its households occupied by married couples, compared to 51.7 percent nationally. The national average declined from 55.2 percent in 1990, however.

Mike Bodine, executive pastor of Central Christian Church in Henderson, said Nevada's statistics do not reflect the family values held by the nearly 7,000 individuals who attend services at his church each weekend. His nondenominational church, in fact, has been sponsoring a series on relationships.

"We don't really see that here," Bodine said of nontraditional living arrangements. "We see people coming to Las Vegas because of the climate and the culture and we see the community growing in terms of family values."

But Hardcastle speculated that Nevada ranked high in nontraditional households because its residents had more financial reasons to have roommates than was true in other states. He cited separate statistics from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2000 that revealed that Nevadans paid higher rent and housing costs but had less median household income than the national average.

The survey found that Nevadans paid $686 a month in rent, compared to $610 nationally, and $137,267 on average for a home, compared to $119,951 nationally. It was also reported that median family income in Nevada was $47,484, compared to $49,286 nationally, and that median nonfamily income was $24,970 in the state and $25,254 in the nation.

"The income is up slightly and the rent is down slightly in the nation compared to Nevada," Hardcastle said. "People can better afford to live on their own elsewhere."