Families

Emmerdale has featured a number of families, some defining an era of the show:

    The Sugden family (1972–present)

    The Bates family (1984–2001)

    The Tate family (1989–2005, 2009–present)

    The Windsor/Hope families (1993–present)

    The Dingle family (1994–present)

    The Glover family (1994–2000)

    The Thomas family (1996–present)

    The Blackstock/Lambert family (1998–present)

    The Reynolds family (1999–2007)

    The King family (2004–present)

    The Sinclair family (2006–2008)

    The Wylde/Lamb family (2009–2011)

    The Barton family (2009–present)

    The Sharma family (2009–present)

    The Macey family (2010–2014)

    The Spencer family (2011–present)

    The White family (2014–present)

The Sugdens and their relatives, the Merricks and the Skilbecks, were at the centre of the show during the series' first two decades in the 1970s and 1980s (the Emmerdale Farm era). The Sugdens, owners of Emmerdale Farm, were its first family. Many of its members, and those of the Merrick and Skilbeck families, have left or been killed off since the mid-1990s.

December 1984 saw the arrival of Caroline Bates; her teenage children, Kathy and Nick, followed in late 1985. Caroline left the show in 1989, returning for guest appearances in 1991, 1993-1994 and 1996. Nick was written out of the show when he was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1997. Kathy and her niece, Alice, remained in the village until late 2001; by then, Kathy had outlived two husbands. Through her, the Bateses are related to two of Emmerdale's central families: the Sugdens (through Jackie Merrick) and the Tates (through Chris Tate).

Sugdens remaining in the village include Jack's widow, Diane; his three children, Andy, Robert and Victoria Barton; Andy's children Sarah and Jack (the latter born on the show's 40th anniversary), and Robert's son Sebastian. Other families followed: the middle-class Windsors in 1993 (known as the Hope family after Viv's 2001 remarriage to Bob Hope) and the ne'er-do-well Dingles in 1994.

The Tate, Windsor-Hope and Dingle families predominated during the 1990s and 2000s. The era's storylines included the 1993 plane crash, the 1994 Home Farm siege, the 1998 post-office robbery, the 2000 bus crash, the 2003–04 storm and the 2006 King show-home collapse. By the mid- to late-2000s, the last of the Tates (Zoe, daughter Jean and nephew Joseph) had emigrated to New Zealand. In 2009, Chris Tate's ex-wife Charity and their son Noah returned to the village. In 2017, Joseph Tate returned to the village. Members of the Windsor-Hope family left the village in early 2006, and Viv Hope was killed off in a village fire in February 2011 after nearly 18 years on the show. As of 2017, only Donna Windsor's daughter, April, and the Hope branch of the family (Bob and his children, twins Cathy and Heathcliff) remain.

The King family arrived in 2004 (as the Tates departed), but, apart from Jimmy King and his three children, Elliott, Angelica and Carl, its members have been killed off.

In 2018, most of the Dingles remained, with having actually increased their numbers in Emmerdale over recent years. Their circumstances had changed in their two decades in the village; Chas Dingle owned half of The Woolpack, with Charity Dingle owning the other half, and Marlon was a chef there. In 2014, the Dingles, Bartons and Whites are the central families; the Bartons are a farming family, and the Whites currently own Home Farm. In 2018, the Barton and White families had slowly been diminished, while the Sugden, and later the Tate, family had been brought back into front-burner storylines.