More Young Adults are Living in Their Parents' Home, Census Bureau Reports

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Between 2005 and 2011, the proportion of young adults living in their parents' home increased, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of men age 25 to 34 living in the home of their parents rose from 14 percent in 2005 to 19 percent in 2011 and from 8 percent to 10 percent over the period for women. (See Figure 1.)

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These statistics come from America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2011, a series of tables from the 2011 Current Population Survey providing a look at the socioeconomic characteristics of families and households at the national level.

"The increase in 25 to 34 year olds living in their parents' home began before the recent recession, and has continued beyond it," said the author, Rose Kreider, a family demographer with the Fertility and Family Statistics Branch.

Similarly, 59 percent of men age 18 to 24 and 50 percent of women that age resided in their parents' home in 2011, up from 53 percent and 46 percent, respectively, in 2005. It should be noted that college students living in a dormitory are counted in their parents' home, so they are included in these percentages. (See Figure 2.)

Other highlights:

• In general, the percent of all households that contain just one person has risen over the last half of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The percentage of such households rose from 13 percent in 1960 to 28 percent in 2011. While the percentage may not differ significantly from one year to the next, the overall trend has been an upward one. The percentage did decline, however, from 2008 to 2010. (See Figure 4.)
• Of the 74.6 million children younger than 18 in 2011, most (69 percent) lived with two parents, while another 27 percent lived with one parent and 4 percent with no parents. Of those children who lived with two parents, 92 percent lived with two biological or two adoptive parents.
• Among the children who lived with one parent, 87 percent lived with their mother.
• Of the children living with no parents present, 57 percent lived with at least one grandparent.
• In 2011, 10 percent of children under 18 lived with at least one grandparent. Seventy-eight percent of these children also lived with at least one parent.
• Of the 67.8 million opposite sex couples who lived together, 89 percent were married couples, while the remaining 11 percent were unmarried.
• In 2011, there were about 7.6 million unmarried couples living together.
• In 2011, married couples with children made up 20 percent of all households, half what they were in 1970 (40 percent). (See Figure 3.)
• In 2011, 23 percent of married couple family groups with children younger than age 15 had a stay-at-home mother. This proportion decreased in the last few years during the recession. In 2007 — before the recession began — the corresponding figure was 24 percent.

This table package is one of several related to children and families to have been released recently or that will be released soon by the Census Bureau, including Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2009, Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns of First-Time Mothers: 1961-2008, Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 2010 and Comparing Program Participation of TANF and non-TANF Families Before and During a Time of Recession.

The Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey was conducted in February, March and April of 2011 for a nationwide sample of about 100,000 addresses. Statistics from surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. For more information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates, including standard errors and confidence intervals, see Appendix G at <http://www.census.gov/apsd/techdoc/cps/cpsmar11.pdf>.

Editor's note: The tables can be accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam.html.

Detailed tables

Robert Bernstein
Public Information Office
301-763-3030
e-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau