Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Number of Adults Living in Cohousing

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

I agree with Diane:  One person per bedroom would be an over-count.  But we can 
apply reasonable correction factors … if we know the number of units at each 
bedroom size.

Over the long haul, a modest database recording number of units at each size, 
acreage, construction type, etc, would be hugely informative.  Since we’re at 
the front end of our movement (only a couple hundred communities, rather than 
thousands), this still seems doable.

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

PS:  I am certainly aware of singles occupying two-bedroom units, but my 
experience is that it’s not very common to find singles in the threes or fours. 
 Cohousers tend to live downsized compared to other American households.  (I 
think …)

> On Jan 7, 2016, at 9:27 AM, Diane <dianeclaire [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In the sample we do know the percentage of people of all ages.  It Alice is
> correct about the total cohousers being close to ,9480 we can just apply
> the percentages from the sample to the 9480  and we've got the numbers you
> want.  The problem is that 9480 is nothing more than a guess.  Knowing the
> number of units and their sizes, as Philip suggests would help, though here
> at Cambridge Cohousing we have lots of singles living in three and four
> bedroom units.  Surely, figuring one person per bedroom would give us an
> overcount even if there are a few pairs in studio and one bedroom units.
> 
> Diane