1 in 4 young adults lives with a parent or other older family member, study shows

One in four young adults resided with their parents or other older family members in 2021, marking the highest proportion in over 50 years, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

This trend is even more pronounced among individuals aged 25 to 34 who lack college degrees; the study found that nearly 1 in 3 people in this demographic lived in multigenerational households last year.

Such living arrangements, which typically involve a young adult residing with parents, grandparents, or other older relatives, have increased significantly over the past several decades, rising from roughly 1 in 10 young adults in 1971. Economic pressures, including student loan debt, high housing costs, and stagnant earnings for young men without college degrees, are fueling this shift, Pew senior researcher Richard Fry told CBS MoneyWatch.

“Multigenerational living, in a way, is a safety valve. It’s a calm from the financial storm,” Fry said. “If they were not in multigenerational families, their poverty rate would be much higher — they would be substantially worse off, in economic terms.”

These findings carry significant economic implications, as these young adults are not establishing their own households at the age when previous generations typically moved out to purchase homes, marry, or rent apartments. Simultaneously, the spike in housing costs during the pandemic, coupled with the highest inflation rates in 40 years, may be making it increasingly difficult for young adults to move out.

“The real estate community has a real large interest in this,” Fry noted. The trend “undercuts the demand for housing, for apartments,” and for furniture and other purchases that go along with setting up a household, he noted.

Most likely to live at home: Young men

Fry noted that the only period likely to have surpassed the current share of multigenerational households is the Great Depression of the 1930s, when economic hardship forced young adults to return to their parents’ homes. However, because data collection on such issues was limited at the time, those figures are difficult to confirm, Fry noted.

“It is the highest level since the 1970s, and it’s also probably the highest level since the 1940s,” he said.

Interestingly, 59% of young adults currently living with parents or grandparents are men, Fry said.

“What do we know about the labor market outcomes of less educated men over the last 50 years? That is the one group, when we adjust for inflation and look at the typical earnings for young men without a bachelor’s degree, their earnings have been falling over the last 50 years,” Fry said. Those men are “probably having real difficulty being able to live independently.”

He added, “That’s not true with young men with a bachelor’s degree.”

Young women are less likely to reside at home, partly because their earnings have trended upward over the last five decades, regardless of whether they hold college degrees, Fry noted.

There is another factor contributing to the rise of multigenerational households, Fry added. This includes the growing share of Hispanic and Asian families in the U.S., where it is a cultural norm for young adults to continue living with parents or older relatives.

The pandemic also prompted some young adults to move back home, although the research highlights that the overall trend has been climbing for at least 50 years, Fry pointed out.

“Multigenerational living is particularly prevalent among what I would call disadvantaged young adults, or less educated young adults,” he said. “They would be in much more dire economic straights if they didn’t live with their parents or grandparents.”