What's Behind the Rise in Living with Parents?

Young adults are more likely to live with their parents than with a spouse or partner, according to a Pew Research Center study—the first time in 130 years that living with Mom and Dad has been more popular than living with a partner. In 2014, 32.1 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds were living in a parent's household, while a smaller 31.6 percent were living with a partner (married or cohabiting).

What's behind this trend? The author of the report, Pew's Richard Fry, disputes the assumption that the rise is due to the growing share of Blacks and Hispanics in the young adult population because the trend is also pronounced among non-Hispanic Whites. Instead, Fry finds the postponement of marriage a more likely factor. "The shift away from marriage can account for the entire increase in living with parents since 1960," he notes.

Fry adds this important caveat: "This does not imply, however, that the shift away from marriage has 'caused' the increase in living with parents, because other social and economic factors may have reduced the attractiveness of marriage for young adults and, at the same time, made living independently of parents more difficult."

Source: Pew Research Center, For First Time in Modern Era, Living with Parents Edges Out Other Living Arrangements for 18-to-34-Year Olds