Meet the parents: Millennials live at home
The economy is recovering, but many still live with their families.
That’s the story for many in the millennial generation, who continue to live with their parents even though they have jobs, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.
The number of adults ages 18 to 34 has grown by nearly 3 million since 2007, the center found. But the number of young people heading their own households has not grown. Indeed, in 2007,about 42.7 million young adults lived independently. In 2015, 42.2 million lived alone.
The center concludes that the 18-to-34 age group is “less likely to be living independently of their families and establishing their own households today than they were in the depths of the Great Recession.”
And this is despite an apparent upsurge in employment for young adults. While 69 percent were employed in 2010, 72 percent are today.
Part of the explanation may be rooted in a separate report. Earlier this year, research by the website Trulia.com found that housing prices in some cities are out-of-reach for recent grads.
There is another culprit, as well: debt. Some college graduates are putting off the big move into an apartment because they are paying off student loans. But even that doesn’t totally explain what’s going on, according to the center. College graduates are actually more likely to live independently than their less-educated counterparts.
More than half of all 25- to 34-year-old adults (51 percent) with at least a bachelor’s degree are living independently. Among those with only a high school education, 43 percent have their own place. Additionally, college graduates’ incomes have almost recovered from the recession. The same cannot be said for those with less education.
Young adults with a college education earned $951 per week in 2015, almost at the 2007 level of $966 per week. Those with no education beyond high school earned $500 per week during the first third of 2015, Pew found, 5 percent below the $527 per week they earned in 2007.
College graduates are rebounding from the Great Recession, the center concluded. But apparently, they’re not convinced that they earn enough to move out just yet.
Related:
Dream apartments out of reach for grads
Report: Student debt haunts graduates
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