Women living with their mothers-in-law

Background Many studies have documented the impacts mothers-in-law have on daughters-in-law living in the same household, but few have quantified the scale of this co-residence. This study aims to estimate the proportion of married women living with their mothers-in-law across countries and time. Methods Using household rosters from 250 Demographic and Health Surveys in 75 countries, this paper uses the “relationship to head of household” question to identify households where married women live with their mothers-in-law. For select countries with large changes, we decompose changes in rates into changes in the age structure of married women and the rate of women living with their mothers-in-law by age. Results This paper finds large variation in family structure around the globe, from 1% of married women in Rwanda to 49% in Tajikistan living with their mother-in-law. Many countries with high co-residence in the 1990s continue to see high and increasing numbers today, especially in Central and Southern Asia, while some North and sub-Saharan African countries experienced substantial declines. Decomposing changes by age and rates shows that changes in the age structure of married women is not driving changes in co-residence, but rather the rates are changing across age groups. Conclusions These findings show the large variation in women living with their mothers-in-law across the globe. The authors provide publicly available code and future research ideas to encourage others to further our understanding of the impact of living with her mother-in-law on a woman’s life.