Household Forms, Environment and Wealth in 1838 Wallachia. A Case Study of Districts Buzău and Slam-Râmnic Bogdan Mateescu Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, 1, Aviatorilor Boulevard, 71261, Bucharest, Romania, bogdanmateescu@iini.ro Abstract. The research presented in this study focuses on a principality of Eastern Europe that has generally been neglected in the field of historical household demography: Wallachia (nowadays in Romania). We compiled a rural population sample from the country’s first general census (1838) and analysed living patterns. In addition, we sought to understand how they related to environment, general economy, and household wealth. Although the Wallachian household was mostly simple, residential arrangements still varied considerably when analysed spatially. Wealth and labour necessity seem to have had a noticeable impact on cross- generational ties, transcending customs and norms that in previous scientific works were considered to apply in a universal manner. Keywords: household structure, living patterns, 1838 census, Wallachia, historical geography 1. Introduction The household has been acknowledged as one of the building blocks of society, a setting in which families emerged and developed, values and customs were transmitted, individuals worked and consumed. Households laid at the intersection between wider demographic and social trends, economy, culture and even state policy, influencing them and in turn being influenced by all these domains. Consequently, the household can be studied through multiple frameworks. Historical demography has had a great impact in the last decades, questioning previous paradigm that originated in sociology (particularly in the works of Frederic LePlay). https://doi.org/10.24193/RJPS.2020.1.02 © Centre for Population Studies