By VDC staff
Vermont’s households are getting smaller while much of the state’s housing stock remains geared toward larger families, according to the Vermont Housing Needs Assessment 2025-2029.
About 70% of Vermont households consisted of just one or two people in 2022, with the state’s average household size falling from 2.6 people in 1990 to 2.3, according to a Vermont Housing Finance Agency report.
Vermont now has the second-smallest average household size in the nation, behind only Maine.
The assessment estimates Vermont has about 187,000 one- and two-person households but only about 138,000 homes with one or two bedrooms. Meanwhile, 59% of the state’s housing stock consists of larger single-family homes.
Between 2010 and 2022, one-person households increased by more than 14% and two-person households by 8%, while households of three or more people declined by 10%.
The report also estimates about 4,200 Vermont households, or 2%, live in overcrowded housing, including more than 2,100 experiencing severe overcrowding.