The author uses a 1994 budget and consumption survey to analyze the phenomenon of the acceptance of relatives into African households in Libreville and Port-Gentil, Gabon. He shows that the population is grouped into relatively large households, generally organized around a single source of income, and that complex structures are very rare. The nuclear family cell represents only three quarters of the members of the household, but the household is only extended to brothers, sisters and their children, who are all generally younger than the head of the household. Younger accepted members of the household usually go to school, and the older ones often do not work. A multivariate analysis indicates that it is mainly the observable characteristics of the head of the household, the nuclear household and the housing that determine the acceptance of other members and that, once these factors are taken into account, income either has no effect or has a negative effect on the decision to accept relatives and on the number of relatives accepted.