Young adults are experiencing traditional milestones such as getting a job, marrying and having children at a later age than their parents.
One of the striking signs of delayed adulthood is the rising number of young adults who live in their parents’ home – now the most popular living arrangement for young adults.
A third of young people, or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34, lived under their parents’ roof in 2015. More young adults lived with parents than with a spouse in 2016. Almost 9 in 10 of the young people who lived with their parents a year ago are still living there. A new U.S. Census Bureau report, The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975–2016 [PDF <1.0 MB], looks at changes in young adulthood over the last 40 years. The report focuses on the education, economic situation and living arrangements of today's young adults and how their experiences differ in timing and degree from what young adults experienced in the 1970s.
What was once ubiquitous in their 20s is now not commonplace until their 30s – a trend that some demographers describe as a new stage between childhood and adulthood. They call it “emerging adulthood.”
A look at this new generation of young adults:
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