One of the less widespread variants of peasant households were single households. The economic, legal and cultural norms of the traditional agrarian society contradicted the emergence of structures of this type. However, they were constantly present in different regions of the country in different time periods. The aim of the work is to study peasant single households of the Saratov province of the late XIX century. In this connection the primary materials of the zemstvo household censuses of the 1880–1890s will be investigated.