A new Census study shows one out of three millennials (age 18-34) are living with their parents. The majority of Americans (55 percent) no longer see getting married or having a child as an important marker of adulthood status. Only 26 percent see not living in your parents’ home as “very important” to adult status.
In 1975, adults under 35 were twice as likely to be living with a spouse as living with mom and/or dad. Today, living with one’s parents is the most common living arrangement of the 35-and-under crowd.
And men are leading the trend, being 12 percentage points more likely than women to be living with mom at age 25-34.
Men between the ages of 25 and 34 are less likely than women to be college grads (34 percent to 40 percent). They are also far less likely than previous generations of men to make a middle class standard of living. Since 1975, the proportion of men ages 25 to 34 who make under $30,000 has jumped from 25 percent to 41 percent. Men still make more money on average than women, but women are gaining income while men are losing it.
When I read these statistics, I thought perhaps immigrants were leading the trend. But Asians are less likely to be living with mom and dad than white Americans, and Hispanics are only two percentage points more likely.
As the economy sours for less educated Americans, especially men, more are choosing mom over marriage.
Maybe President Trump can find some shovel-ready jobs soon.
Photo credit: Marco Arment via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
