Data from the 10% sample of the 1987 census were the basis for this examination of the influence of socioeconomic development on family structure in Cameroon. Despite the widespread belief that "modernization" will inevitably lead to universal convergence of family structure toward the Western nuclear model, the evidence from Cameroon suggests that nuclear family forms are more common in rural and impoverished than in urban strata. The study examines household types in four strata: the cities of Yaounde and Douala, other urban areas, and rural areas. Household structure, viewed (in the absence of more adequate data) as the reflection of family structure, was examined through the four variables of size, type, presence of nonnuclear relatives, and number of nonnuclear relatives. Urbanization, education, employment and occupation, living standard, and available living space were the indicators of socioeconomic development. Multiple classification analysis was used to assess the power of socioeconomic factors to predict and explain the size and nuclear structure of households. The results in all strata demonstrated a highly significant positive correlation between socioeconomic factors and household size. Living space as measured by the number of rooms available was the socioeconomic variable with the most predictive and explanatory power. In all strata, the largest households, after standardization for age of the household head, were those of the elite. A strong but negative association of socioeconomic factors and nuclear household structure was also apparent in several models that included the five indicators of development and three control variables (place of birth, marital status, and type of household). The bivariate and multivariate analyses do not support the thesis that African households were traditionally extended households. In Cameroon, at least, most rural households are nuclear. At the national level, 55% of family households are nuclear. Urbanization is negatively related to nuclear household structure, both nationally and within each province.