Additional Adults

In 2011, nearly one in five households in the United States (19.2 percent) was a shared household--meaning additional adults live in the household besides the householder and the householder's spouse or partner. The 19.2 percent is a substantial figure, but it has not grown all that much since 2007, when 17.6 percent of households were shared. In other words, households with additional adults are not only common today, but they were common before the Great Recession as well. (Additional adults do not include 18-to-24-year-olds if they are enrolled in school, according to the Census Bureau's definition.)

Overall, 17.9 percent of Americans aged 18 or older are additional adults in a shared household. Here are the percentages by age...

Aged 18 to 24: 35.3%
Aged 25 to 34: 30.5%
Aged 35 to 64: 11.9%
Aged 65-plus: 10.9%

Source: Census Bureau, Poverty and Shared Households by State: 2011