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Trees within the homestead area provide many functions to rural households. However, within the semi-arid regions of southern Africa, there has been only limited examination of the correlates between the socio-economic attributes of rural households and the density, species richness and types of trees they keep. This paper reports on a multivariate analysis of household attributes in relation to homestead tree holdings from six rural villages in South Africa. In terms of density of trees per household, gender of the household head was the only significant correlate, with female-headed households having significantly fewer trees than their male-headed counterparts. This was especially so for the density of indigenous trees. With respect to species richness, a number of interrelated correlates were identified through Principle Components Analysis, the most prominent ones being relative wealth, village location, homestead size and gender. Most species were common between both male- and female-headed households, although there were differences between them for six of the species held by at least five percent of households. However, the differences were not related to species uses or income generation potential. These results indicate that support programmes should be conscious of the differential needs and responses of households according to their different characteristics and circumstances.