6. The female adult is neither the household head nor has a spouse; she lives with children and seniors; the head of the household may be a senior.

For the purposes of the analysis, we have defined as _sole‐responsible_ adult households those where the one adult (i) lives with children only (no seniors in the household) because, regardless of whether she is the head or is married, the spouse is not reported to be living in the household; or ii) is the head, has no spouse, and lives with children, or children and seniors, because the seniors most likely depend on her, and the senior is not a spouse (it is worth noting that households with senior members and children are 0.7 percent of all poor households). By this definition, of the 7 million of one‐adult‐female with children households that are poor, 81 percent are sole‐responsible adult ones. In the case of one‐adult‐male households with children that are poor, 83 percent correspond to sole‐responsible ones. While the difference is not large, it indicates how difficult is to define headship and household responsibility.

The demographic household composition analysis by regions reveals important variations in the shares of poor households in each group across regions. Numbers confirm that adult couple households with children, and with children and other adults (extended family), are the most common household type across all regions, and that they are the most frequent group to be found among poor households (Table 6). However, there are other types of households that gain relevance depending on the region. One adult female households with children are more prevalent among the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Sub‐Saharan Africa than in other regions but they are less prevalent among the total number of households.

In East Asia and the Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia, a non‐negligible share of poor households are adult couple (e.g. married or cohabiting) households without children (4 percent). In Europe and Central Asia, extended family households (adult couple households with children and other adults) are more likely to be poor than the adult couple households with children and no other adults. In all other regions, the reverse is true. Finally, one adult households without children, regardless of the sex of the adult, constitute an important share of the poor (as well as an important share of the total number of households) in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Europe and Central Asia.

_Table 6. Distribution of demographic household types across regions (poor households)_

|HOUSEHOLD TYPE|Region|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||EAP|ECA|LAC|SAR|SSA|
|One adult, female ‐ no children|2.0%|2.9%|4.7%|1.1%|0.9%|
|One adult, female ‐ with children|2.6%|2.3%|14.0%|3.2%|8.4%|
|One adult, male ‐ no children|2.1%|7.7%|7.6%|0.7%|1.1%|
|One adult, male ‐ with children|1.6%|0.4%|2.1%|0.7%|2.3%|
|Adult couple ‐ no children|3.8%|3.8%|3.8%|1.7%|1.3%|
|Adult couple ‐ with children|32.6%|20.4%|34.2%|44.3%|43.0%|
|Adult couple ‐ with children and other adults|28.8%|34.3%|12.4%|32.6%|26.3%|
|Multiple adults no children|1.2%|1.3%|2.1%|0.3%|0.7%|
|Multiple adults, only female ‐ with children|1.1%|1.2%|3.7%|1.2%|3.5%|
|Multiple adults, only male ‐ with children|0.3%|0.1%|0.5%|0.3%|1.1%|

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