The booklet analyzes demographic and economic characteristics of married couples in the United States. The study is based on census data and on information about joint characteristics of husbands and wives. The objective of the study is to revise concepts related to family and household data by adding analysis of wives' characteristics to traditionally exclusive analysis of husband's age, sex, employment status, and occupation. Information is presented on age of husbands and wives, remarriage and intermarriage, educational attainment of husbands and wives, social characteristics of younger and older couples, employment characteristics of married couples, income of married couples, and occupations of husbands and wives. Highlights of the study are that most men and women marry at some time during their lives; 85% of men and 88% of women have been married only once; husbands and wives tend to have similar levels of education; 81% of married men and 47% of married women were in the labor force in 1977; and the earnings of the wife were about equal to or greater than the husband's earnings among one married couple in three in which the wife had earnings. (DB)