Report: More Americans Between 18 and 34 Live with Parents Than Spouse

More Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 live with their parents than with a spouse, according to a new study.

In 1975, 31.9 million young people lived with a spouse, compared to just 19.9 million in 2016, while the number of young people staying with their parents has risen from 14.7 million to 22.9 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Despite this vast difference, the number of young unmarried partners living together has risen from around 700,000 to over 9.2 million, while the number of young people living alone has also gone up from 5 percent to 8 percent.

“What does it mean to be a young adult? In prior generations, young adults were expected to have finished school, found a job, and set up their own household during their 20s—most often with their spouse and with a child soon to follow,” explained the Census Bureau study. “Today’s young adults take longer to experience these milestones.”

“What was once ubiquitous during their 20s is now not commonplace until their 30s. Some demographers believe the delays represent a new period of the life course between childhood and adulthood, a period of ’emerging adulthood’ when young people experience traditional events at different times and in a different order than their parents did,” they continued. “What is clear is that today’s young adults look different from prior generations in almost every regard: how much education they have, their work experiences, when they start a family, and even who they live with while growing up.”

The report also added, “More young men are falling to the bottom of the income ladder,” pointing out that “In 1975, only 25 percent of men, aged 25 to 34, had incomes of less than $30,000 per year.”

“By 2016, that share rose to 41 percent of young men (incomes for both years are in 2015 dollars),” they continued. “There are now more young women than young men with a college degree, whereas in 1975 educational attainment among young men outpaced that of women.”

The majority of states with the highest number of young people staying with their parents were predominantly coastal.

New Jersey took the top position with 46.9 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds staying at home, followed by Connecticut (41.6 percent), New York (40.6 percent), Maryland (38.5 percent), Florida (38.3 percent), and California (38.1 percent).

At the bottom with the least amount of young people living with their parents was North Dakota with 14.1 percent, following by South Dakota (19.9 percent), Wyoming (20.9 percent), Nebraska (22.7 percent), Iowa (22.8 percent), Montana (24.1 percent), and Colorado (24.6 percent).

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.