32.1%: Living With Parents Now Most Common Arrangement for 18-34 Year Olds
(CNSNews.com) – A Pew Research Center analysis [1] released Tuesday showed that for the first time since 1880 in the United States, living with parents is the most common arrangement for 18-34 year-olds.
According to the most recent data from 2014, 31.6 percent of young adults were living with a spouse or partner in their own household and 32.1 percent were living in their parent’s home.
There is also a gender divide with significantly more young men living with their parents than young women.
Thirty-five percent of women live with a spouse or romantic partner, and just 29 percent live in their parents’ home compared to 28 percent of men living with a spouse or romantic partner and 35 percent living with parents.
Pew noted that “for men ages 18 to 34, living at home with mom and/or dad has been the dominant living arrangement since 2009” while “young women are on the cusp of crossing over this threshold: They are still more likely to be living with a spouse or romantic partner.”
The number of millennials living with their parents is not at a record high, Pew noted. “This arrangement peaked around 1940, when about 35% of the nation’s 18- to 34-year-olds lived with mom and/or dad (compared with 32% in 2014).”
“What has changed, instead, is the relative share adopting different ways of living in early adulthood,” they explained, “with the decline of romantic coupling pushing living at home to the top of a much less uniform list of living arrangements.”
Pew attributed the overall increase in millennials living at home to “a variety of factors,” including “the postponement of, if not retreat from, marriage,” pointing out that “the median age of first marriage has risen steadily for decades.”
Pew pointed out that their past analysis [2] “projected that as many as one-in-four of today’s young adults may never marry.”
“Trends in both employment status and wages have likely contributed to the growing share of young adults who are living in the home of their parent(s), and this is especially true of young men,” Pew added.
“Employed young men are much less likely to live at home than young men without a job, and employment among young men has fallen significantly in recent decades.” Pew explained.
“The share of young men with jobs peaked around 1960 at 84%. In 2014, only 71% of 18- to 34-year-old men were employed. Similarly with earnings, young men’s wages (after adjusting for inflation) have been on a downward trajectory since 1970 and fell significantly from 2000 to 2010. As wages have fallen, the share of young men living in the home of their parent(s) has risen.”
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