People per household: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-10/the-shrinking-of-u-s-household-size-may-be-coming-to-an-end https://www.bloomberg.com/n

People per household: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-10/the-shrinking-of-u-s-household-size-may-be-coming-to-an-end https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-10/the-shrin... Square foot per household: https://www.newser.com/story/225645/average-size-of-us-homes-decade-by-decade.html https://www.newser.com/story/225645/average-size-of-us-homes... (annoyingly, this data comes from the US Census but I can't seem to find it on their site - but it does match up with every other source) Interesting, semi-related: https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization Very interesting, about older housing: https://mountainmath.ca/teardowns https://mountainmath.ca/teardowns From there it's just simple division to see the square foot per person. > the ability to buy 1950s-70s grade housing, medical care, etc., for a lower price If you want 50s style housing (aka dated interior and 280 sqft per person) - there are plenty of options. Go on Zillow and limit your price to $75k and you'll see plenty of homes available. 600sqft homes aren't the average, but they certainly still exist. You may think "aha, but you can't find a home in NYC!" - but keep in mind, only 16% of the world lived in urban areas in 1900 (and only 29% in 1950!) If you want an old car, those are cheap too. Old phones, TVs, radios, etc etc are all basically free. Dated medical care is the one thing you obviously can't get. No, if you want to party like it's nineteen (forty) nine, go ahead. Live without a car (the majority of households had no car in the 40s) - you can get around by bike if you're lucky, and if you're in a car-centric area you can ride along with your coworkers, family and friends, or hitchhike, as people did. Your small housing will be very inexpensive. Your old-fashioned diet will consist of staples like flour, potatoes, milk, bread etc that have gotten extremely cheap relative to your income. Costs that would have been a solid chunk of your budget in the 40s (new clothing, for example) have gotten so cheap as to be almost unrecognizable. I say this all as someone who did live a life of consuming very little for several years. If you do want to live in a smaller space, not have a car, and simply consume less (water/electricity/money/resources) it is certainly possible, even in our modern world. Give it a shot! You'll be surprised.