This paper reviews some of the issues and concerns that have prompted the growth of interest in the demography of the family. It also examines a number of aspects of the family and the household structure of racial and ethnic minorities. The five racial minorities discussed are blacks, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and American Indians. The indicators examined for each group include: (1) age distribution, (2) family and household size, (3) persons not living in families, (4) distribution of households by life cycle stage, (5) characteristics of husband wife families, (6) female headed families and children living in two parent household, (7) families with non nuclear family members, and (8) living arrangements of certain categories of adults including young unmarried persons, recently married couples, separated and divorced persons without children, and separated and divorced mothers. The indicators were selected primarily on the basis of their utility with respect to assessing the impact of variation among racial and ethnic groups in family and household structure on measures of economic welfare and inequity. Results indicate that there is great diversity in the family and household structure among the racial and ethnic groups considered. (Author/AM)