Fireplaces

December 4, 2008

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Profile America — Thursday, December 4th. Many Americans are taking a break from shopping and the winter weather to relax in front of their fireplace. As with many of today’s luxuries, they were once necessities — for much of the nation’s history, nearly every home was heated by a fireplace, and all households had to cut and stack wood for cooking and to keep the house warm. Today, just over half of new homes are being built with a fireplace, down from two-thirds in 1990. Across the nation, just over 250,000 houses are heated primarily with either an open fireplace or a wood burning stove insert. Many others use fireplaces as a supplemental source of heat. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, t. 936, 951
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2008edition.html