On the basis of recent findings, independent rural households formed a safeguard against the excess mortality during the Finnish 1860s famine. In this article, an analysis of deanery level longitudinal panel data shows that an increase in the number of unmarried adults reduced the number of households. This suggests that the ability to marry not only had a role in determining the household structure but also by increasing the within-household inequality it facilitated the economic hardships in the pre-famine rural Finland.