The percentage of young women living at home with parents or relatives has risen to its highest level since 1940 as more millennial women put off marriage, attend college and face high living expenses.
A Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found that 36.4 percent of women between the ages 18 and 34 lived with parents or relatives in 2014, the most since at least 1940, when 36.2 percent lived with family.
It is a very different world for women now, though, despite the “return to the past, statistically speaking,” says Richard Fry, a senior economist at Pew.
Fry says young women are staying home now because they are they are half as likely to be married as they were 1940 and much more likely to be college-educated. Other economic forces, such as increasing student debt, higher living costs and economic uncertainty, are also playing a role.
Casey Ballard was living away from home in Portland, Oregon, but rent ate up roughly two-thirds of her paycheck and she was ready for a career change. A September move back with family in California allowed her to try out teaching as a substitute and to pursue teaching full-time.
“There was that element of frustration and feeling like a failure,” she says about returning home. “But then the logical side of me kicked in and said ‘It’s just fiscally responsible.'”
Young men have historically lived with parents at higher rates than young women, and similar economic and cultural forces are keeping an increasing number of men at home too in recent years. But the rate young men are staying home with their parents and relatives, 42.8 percent, remains below the 47.5 percent level for men in 1940.
The percentage of young men and women living with family fell after the 1940s as more women joined the workforce, the overall workforce expanded, and marriage rates increased.
But while marriage was once the life event that triggered a move out of the family home, it is now coming later with each generation, if it comes at all. The median age of marriage for women is now 27, up from 21.5 in 1940. For men, it is 29.3, up from 24.3 in 1940.
Young women and men began staying home or returning there at a more rapid rate after 2000, a trend that sharply increased with the economic uncertainty brought on by the housing collapse and recession in the late 2000s.
While the retreat home for young adults it is also clearly a result of economic pressures, it is not, according to Fry, an employment issue. For example, more young adults are living with their family now than in 2010, even though the job market has improved since then.
“The job market has gotten significantly better (for this group),” Fry says. “Unemployment has come down, more have jobs and some are even getting paid a bit more.”
Another factor in the change, Fry says, is increased ethnic diversity across this age demographic, which in turn has introduced cultural traditions of living with parents and relatives longer into life.
“I don’t think it’s as bad as people think it is,” says Stacey Sholes, 26, who moved back into her parent’s house in Fresno, California eight months ago after leaving college in San Francisco and working in Los Angeles.
Sholes is still a few credits shy of graduating but isn’t sure if she will return because her private school was very expensive and she’s not confident she’ll be able to find a job in the film industry even with a degree.
She is living with her folks while she figures out her next step and has taken a holiday job at the same retail store she worked when she was 18 to bring in some cash.
There are bumps, like when she fails to tidy up or check in with her parents regularly. But otherwise it’s a comfort to be with her family.
Still, she hopes to find a new place soon with a roommate.
“I have a very loving, supportive family, they don’t give me a hard time about it,” she said. “It’s a good place to crash while I figure my life out.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Lack of good jobs. Our leaders care more about illegal aliens getting benefits than the future of our nation. H1-B visas make sure that foreign youth work, while American youth flounder. Americans care more about reality shows and smart phones to even notice.
The parents need to talk with their kids about living at home once their schooling is completed or put on hold. A few years at home can give the “child” an opportunity to save up some money so they can purchase a home or at least get on stable financial footing. For those who show no urgency in getting out on their own or finding a job, the parents may want to take an active role in the process.
I heard of one father who helped his daughter find an apartment and paid the first two months rent. The mother carried the daughter shopping and filled the girl’s apartment refrigerator. The parents told the daughter she was welcome to visit them on holidays but she was now on her own. The full refrigerator and prepaid rent gave her the time to find a job that would allow her to pay her living expenses going forward. According to the daughter, it worked.
Kick there as_ out, get a job or starve…To many kids don’t want to work if they can sponge..the world survived before welfare was invented.. people worked even if they had to shovel shot…
One Question…. What Gives the ‘Young ”Adult’ The Right to Think They are “Entitled to Have Everything their Parents have had to work hard for..Thru Too many years of ‘doing without Whatever They Would like to have had themselves for All of those years of working hard… and of trying to stay ‘a step ahead of the bill-collectors ! While
providing A home for These .. precious children .. who have now turned into Absolute ingrates .. Most who Think They should Have IT All And Not have to Go the Route of Earning it..Like their poor ,overextended parents Had to do.. just to get to a point of ‘Maybe I Can survive now…Without having to Hold down a Job ..Now that I am over Seventy ! (Then comes ‘Junior… or Junioress- Twenty-thirty Something ‘ (( moving in )) Who Thinks The World owes them a Free Ride..Just Because ”The Economy is bad, Can`t find a job ”that is up to the standards of my expectations”,, I Have this big College Debt I racked up over those 4-6 Years of Living And NOT Paying for Anything ! ( But Gee, MA ! ..I was ‘So Busy ”getting an Education “. and Living it up in ”College .. was I supposed To grow Up , too ?? ) Is this what This world has Evolved down to ? A Country Filled with a Bunch of Free-Loaders ??
No. It is Not even Half right What Is being Foisted onto Old , worn out Senior Citizens Who Raised The “Kiddies’ ( ( Even way past the Age Of Reckoning’ ) To now be used For The REST of their Lives >>However Short those Years Are . )) And NO. The Govmt. does not Owe These ‘too Old to be Free-loaders on their parents, families’ a free ride. But What it DOES owe Them IS JOBS Brought BACK into this Country And Put these’ Up and Comings ” TO Work For their own Living. And to Stop coddling Illegal Immigrants who are LET Into this Country And Then ‘given what meager Jobs that were Left here..to These People (( Because, After all, THEY are Bi-lingual !!! )) ..If they can Speak Ten words in English..Then They ARE ”Bi-lingual ! ‘..Never mind that Those ten words only consist of ” where is The Food-bank located And Where is the Nearest “Free Shelter ? HOW long Does This Guvmt. Think This Condition Will Continue.., Without dire Trouble in our Streets ?? Even while This Situation Goes on..This Guvmt. Keeps Slinging out Here..Talk of Cutting Our Social Security ( Instead of Adding even a Pittance .[.when the C.O.L. keeps Climbing ? When IT has to cover not just their own Living expenses, but The “Grown Adult-Children” who Think They are Entitled .. who think they should be fitted into That equation,,somehow ? ] Shame on this “So-called -Guvmt. It has Not only Failed The Citizens <= of this Country..but Has Shown The World How Uncaring And inhumane it really Is.. After all, These politicians Live Well, and they Don`t have a Financial Worry in The World. This Shameful Condition Has to be Righted. And NOW.