75% of Younger Adults Are in Debt

The 77 percent majority of American households are in debt, according to the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances. The accumulation of debt starts early. Among 18-to-24-year-olds, 68 percent report that their household has debt, according to a University of Chicago GenForward Survey fielded in 2020. The figure is 76 percent among those aged 25 to 30 and 82 percent among 31-to-36-year-olds.  

Percent of people aged 18 to 36 with household debt

75% have any household debt

35% have student loans

32% have auto loans

28% have a mortgage

23% carry a credit card balance 

15% have past-due medical debt

Student loans are the most common type of debt among younger adults, and the percentage of 18-to-36-year-olds with student loans does not vary much by age. Student loan debt is most common among younger adults with some college (42 percent) or a bachelor's degree (46 percent), but it is also significant among those without a high school diploma (23 percent) and those with only a high school diploma (19 percent). 

Nearly half (48 percent) of young adults say their household debt is manageable. But a substantial 16 percent say their debt is a bit more than is manageable, and another 8 percent say their debt is far more than is manageable. The debt burden shouldered by younger adults helps to explain why they have been slow to embrace significant life events...

Percent of 18-to-36-year-olds who say debt has delayed life event

Buying a home: 29%

Buying a car: 26%

Saving for retirement: 25%

Continuing their education: 22%

Having children: 14%

Marrying: 12%

Source: University of Chicago, GenForward Survey, Race, Ethnicity, and the Financial Lives of Young Adults

Fewer Households in 2020

The number of households in the United States fell in 2020 for the first time in the history of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey household series dating back to 1960. The decline was small—a loss of just 128,000 households between March 2019 and March 2020—but even a small decline is significant. It marks the turmoil of the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, when many left their homes to join family and friends for what seemed at the time to be a short-lived disruption.

Usually, the number of households in the U.S. grows by more than 1 million a year. That has been the case in 41 of the past 70 years. The largest single-year gain was in 1980, when the number of households surged by 3.4 million. The smallest increase was in 2009—up by just 357,000 in the aftermath of the Great Recession. 

Households did not decline in every demographic segment, of course. Here are the segments with the biggest losses...

Householders under age 30: The number of households headed by people under age 30 fell by more than 1.2 million between 2019 and 2020—an 8 percent decline. Some of the shrinkage can be accounted for by college students living off campus who returned to their parents' home when college classes went online. (Students living in college-owned housing are already counted as living with their parents.) 

Single-person households: The number of people who live alone fell by 281,000 between March 2019 and March 2020. Almost the entire decline occurred among men who live alone, their number falling by 273,000 versus an 8,000 decline for women. Why the difference? Most women who live alone are aged 55 or older. Most men who live alone are under age 55. Because of the age difference, women who live alone are less likely to be college students and less likely than their male counterparts to be hurt by the Covid-19 Recession. 

Asian, Black, and Hispanic households: The number of households headed by Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics fell by a combined 332,000 between March 2019 and March 2020. Asian households saw the largest drop, with 128,000 fewer households in 2020—a 1.8 percent decline. The number of Black households fell by 113,000 and Hispanic households by 91,000. 

Source: Census Bureau, Historical Household Tables

All Eyes on the Young Adult Vote

If young adults do what they say, the 2020 election may be one for the history books. Fully 55 percent of 18-to-36-year-olds say they will "definitely vote" in next week's election, according to the University of Chicago's GenForward Survey. Another 19 percent say they will "probably vote." If they do as they say, then voter turnout of the 18-to-36 age group may exceed the 54 percent who voted in the 2008 election, which swept Barack Obama into the White House. 

Young adults are notorious for not voting, a frustration for those who seek progressive change and a boon to those who want to maintain the status quo. In the 2016 presidential election, just 49.8 percent of citizens aged 18 to 36 voted, according to the Census Bureau. In the 2012 election, the figure was 49.2 percent. But the GenForward survey results suggest greater enthusiasm this time around. The majority of 18-to-36-year-olds say they have "quite a bit/great deal" of interest in this election. Here are the percentages who say they will definitely vote by race and Hispanic origin...

Percent of 18-to-36-year-olds who say they will definitely vote in the 2020 presidential election

Total: 55%

Asians: 56%

Blacks: 59%

Hispanics: 49%

Non-Hispanic whites: 57%

Source: GenForward, Politics 2020, Protest, Racism, and Policing 

Tripling in Young Adult Households with Student Loans

The percentage of young adult households with student loan debt has tripled over the past few decades, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis analysis. Among all households headed by 25-to-34-year-olds, 46 percent had student loans in 2016—three times the 1989 figure. Here is the trend by type of household...

Percent of married-couple householders aged 25 to 34 with student loan debt
2016: 46%
1989: 15%

Percent of cohabiting householders aged 25 to 34 with student loan debt
2016: 50%
1989: 10%

Percent of single-person householders aged 25 to 34 with student loan debt
2016: 45%
1989: 17%

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, As Fewer Young Adults Wed, Married Couples' Wealth Surpasses Others'

The Lives of Young Adults Have Been Transformed by the Rise in School Enrollment

The percentage of young adults who were enrolled in school in 2018 was a bit below the record high, thanks to the full-employment economy. But the latest figures are not far from the records, which were recorded in the aftermath of the Great Recession. It is now the norm to go to college at the completion of high school and stay in school beyond age 20. The rise in school enrollment has transformed the lives of young adults.

Percentage of 18-to-24-year-olds enrolled in school, 1960 to 2018

	18 and 19	20 and 21	22 to 24
2018	69.1%	54.6%	28.0%
2010	69.2	52.4	28.9
2000	61.2	44.1	24.6
1990	57.3	39.7	21.0
1980	46.4	31.0	16.3
1970	47.7	31.9	14.9
1960	38.4	19.4	8.7

Among 18-and-19-year-olds, 69 percent were enrolled in school in 2018, up from just 38 percent in 1960. More than half of 20-to-21-year-olds were in school in 2018 versus only one in five in 1960. Among 22-to-24-year-olds, more than one in four are in school today, three times the share of 1960. As young people spend more time in school, they have postponed marriage and childbearing.

Notice the higher school enrollment of 18-to-21-year-olds in 1970 than in 1980. This was due to the Vietnam War, which drove young men onto college campuses to avoid the draft. In 1970, fully 54 percent of men aged 18 and 19 were enrolled in school. Among their female counterparts at the time, only 42 percent were in school. Similarly among 20-and-21-year-olds in 1970, 43 percent of men but only 24 percent of women were enrolled in school. Today, women in these age groups are more likely than men to be in school. Among 18-and-19-year-olds in 2018, 72 percent of women and 66 percent of men were enrolled in school. Among 20-and-21-year-olds, the figures are 58 and 51 percent, respectively.

Source: Census Bureau, CPS Historical Time Series on School Enrollment

How Much Is Too Much?

Are parents doing too much for their young adult children? Most Americans think so. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the 55 percent majority of adults say parents are doing too much for their children aged 18 to 29.

But ask the parents of these young adults whether they're doing too much and you get a different answer. Fully 63 percent say they are doing about the right amount. Only 28 percent think they do too much. The remaining 8 percent say they do too little.

One of the big things parents do for their young adult children is help them financially. Among parents with children aged 18 to 29, a substantial 59 percent have provided at least some financial help to their child in the past 12 months. The average American might call this financial help excessive. But parents with children aged 18 to 29 know better than anyone else how hard it is for young adults to achieve financial independence these days. While 64 percent of the public thinks adult children should be financially independent by age 22, only 24 percent of young adults achieve financial independence by age 22.

Source: Pew Research Center, Majority of Americans Say Parents Are Doing Too Much for Their Young Adult Children

Most People Can't Be Trusted

It's not only the number of candles on a birthday cake that separate younger from older Americans. A survey by Pew Research Center finds a huge attitudinal gap between young adults (aged 18 to 29) and older Americans (aged 65-plus) on matters of trust.

Pew surveyed Americans to measure their level of interpersonal trust, then categorized respondents as high, medium, or low trusters based on their answers to three questions—can people be trusted, do people try to be fair no matter what, and do people try to help others. Overall, 22 percent of adults are high trusters, 41 percent are medium trusters, and 35 percent are low trusters.

There are big differences by age. Nearly half (46 percent) of 18-to-29-year-olds are low trusters, reports Pew. Among people aged 65 or older, only 19 percent fall into this category. The 60 percent majority of young adults say most people can't be trusted (versus 29 percent of people aged 65 or older), 71 percent say most people try to take advantage of you if they get a chance (versus 39 percent), and 73 percent say most of the time people just look out for themselves (versus 48 percent).

Stark differences emerge between young adults and the oldest Americans on a number of other questions as well. For example, only 35 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds versus 67 percent of people aged 65 or older have a fair or great deal of confidence in the American people to respect the rights of those who are not like them. Just 44 percent of young adults versus 66 percent of those aged 65-plus have a fair or great deal of confidence in the American public to accept election results no matter who wins.

Source: Pew Research Center, Young Americans Are Less Trusting of Other People—and Key Institutions—than Their Elders

Keeping Track of American Freshmen

For more than 50 years, the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA has been keeping track of the characteristics, attitudes, and behavior of each incoming class of college freshmen. It all started in 1966, the year when boomers born in 1948 turned 18 and (some) headed off to college. In that year, just 50 percent of high school graduates went to college—59 percent of men and 43 percent of women. Men's college enrollment far surpassed women's because many men were trying to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam.

Skip ahead to 2017, when a much larger 67 percent of high school graduates were enrolled in college by October following high school graduation—61 percent of men and 72 percent of women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Times have changed. College freshmen have changed—in some ways, but not in others.

Parents of college freshmen are more highly educated: Only 30 percent of the fathers and 20 percent of the mothers of 1966 college freshmen had a college degree themselves. Today, the great majority of college freshmen have parents who graduated from college.

Worry level is the same: Most college freshmen in 1966 had some (57 percent) or a lot (8 percent) of worries about paying for college. The figures were almost the same in 2017, with 54 percent of having some worries and 12 percent having major worries. The percentage of freshmen with no worries was identical in the two years at 34 percent.

Political views are about the same: Liberals accounted for 36 percent of college freshmen in 2017, down slightly from the 39 percent of 1970 (the first year the survey included this question). Another 22 percent of college students identified themselves as conservative in 2017, up slightly from the 18 percent of 1970. The plurality of college students identified themselves as middle of the road in both years—41 percent in 2017 and 43 percent in 1970.

Goals have changed: Making money is much more important than it used to be. Having a philosophy of life is much less important. Family goals have not changed. Fully 82.5 percent of college freshmen in 2017 said "being very well off financially" was a very important or essential objective, up from 42 percent who felt that way in 1966. Only 48 percent of college freshmen in 2017 said "developing a philosophy of life" was very important or essential, down from 86 percent in 1967 (the first year of the question). Family life continues to be very important or essential to the same share of college freshmen in 2017 as in 1969 (the first year of the question)—71.0 and 71.5 percent, respectively.

Most still think they are above average: The great majority of college freshmen in 1966 and in 2017 considered themselves to be above average or in the highest 10 percent in academic ability, drive to achieve, and understanding of others.

Source: Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2017 and The American Freshman: Fifty-Year Trends 1966–2015

Many College Students Do Not Earn a Degree

Most high school graduates enroll in college. Many take on student loans to pay for their education. But how successful are they in earning the credentials that will help them boost their earnings for a lifetime? A longitudinal study by the National Center for Education Statistics reveals the not-so-pretty picture.

Through its 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, the NCES tracked first-time students who entered postsecondary institutions in 2011–12 to determine how many had earned an educational credential six years later in 2017. Here are the findings...

Highest educational credential attained by Spring 2017

  8.5% had earned a certificate

10.9% had earned an associate's degree

36.8% had earned a bachelor's degree

43.8% had no educational credential 

  

Among the 44 percent who had yet to earn an educational credential, 28 percent were still in school and 72 percent were no longer enrolled in any institution.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Persistence, Retention, and Attainment of 2011–12 First-time Beginning Postsecondary Students as of Spring 2017

Excuses, Excuses

In the last midterm election in 2014, only 17 percent of 18-to-24-year-old citizens voted—the lowest rate of any age group. When the young adults who did not vote were asked by the Census Bureau why they failed to show up at the polls. These were their reasons...

32% said they were too busy
17% said they were not interested
14% said they were out of town
10% forgot

Other reasons given by 18-to-24-year-olds for not voting included not liking the candidates (4 percent), illness (3 percent), registration problems (3 percent), an inconvenient polling place (2 percent), transportation problems (2 percent), and "other" (8 percent). Five percent of nonvoters refused to explain why they didn't cast a ballot.

Source: Census Bureau, Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2014

What Happens to Young Adults Who Don't Go To College?

Is going to college pretty much the only path to financial security for today's young adults? That's what is suggested by the results of the National Center for Education Statistics' longitudinal survey of the ninth grade class of 2009. The 2016 follow up, seven years later, provides a disturbing look at the financial situation of those who did not go to college.

A substantial 28 percent of the nation's 2009 ninth graders had not enrolled in a postsecondary institution since graduating from high school, according to the 2016 follow up. When asked why they never went to college, 43 percent cited personal reasons and 42 percent financial.

Anxiety was widespread among these young adults, with 60 percent worried about having enough money to pay for regular expenses. Many depended on parents to get by: 26 percent said their parents regularly helped them pay for their rent or mortgage; 26 percent said their parents regularly helped with health care costs; and 19 percent said their parents regularly helped pay their monthly bills. Among those who were employed, 39 percent reported having an income of less than $10,000 in the previous year.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) Second Follow-Up: A First Look at Fall 2009 Ninth-Graders in 2016

Is Racism Receding?

Is racism receding in younger generations? That's one of the issues probed by PRRI and MTV in a nationally representative survey of 15-to-24-year-olds. Survey respondents were asked how much they agreed with the statement: "Racism is more of a problem for other generations than it is for my generation." The 55 percent majority of 15-to-24-year-olds disagreed, believing that racism is as big a problem for them as it is for older Americans. But a substantial 45 percent agreed, believing that racism is receding. Young White men are most likely to think racism is less of a problem in their generation, young Blacks are least likely to think so...

Racism is more of a problem for other generations (percent of 15-to-24-year-olds who agree)
White men: 55%
Hispanics: 45%
White women: 41%
Asians: 35%
Blacks: 34%

Source: MTV and PRRI, Diversity, Division, Discrimination: The State of Young America

Young People Do Not Share Our Values!

That's the opinion of the great majority of Americans aged 18 or older, according to a PRRI survey. When asked whether they agree or disagree with the statement, "Most young people today do not share the same values I do," the 75 percent majority of the public completely (32 percent) or mostly (43 percent) agrees.

This "you kids get off my lawn!" attitude is shared by every race and Hispanic origin group and by both Democrats and Republicans...

"Most young people today do not share the same values I do" (percent agreeing)
Total public: 75%

Blacks: 85%
Hispanics: 73%
Non-Hispanic Whites: 76%

Republicans: 87%
Democrats: 64%

Source: PRRI, Attitudes on Child and Family Wellbeing: National and Southeast/Southwest Perspectives

Living Arrangements of Young Adults, 1975 and 2016

The lives of young adults have changed dramatically over the past 40 years, according to a Census Bureau report. A comparison of the living arrangements of 18-to-34-year-olds in 2016 with the living arrangements of their counterparts more than 40 years ago in 1975 shows just how much has changed...

• Only 27% live with a spouse, down from the 57% majority in 1975.
• Nearly one-third (31%) live with their parents, up from 26% in 1975.
• One in eight (12%) lives with an unmarried partner, up from just 1% in 1975.
• More live alone—8% in 2016, up from 5% in 1975.
• One in five (21%) has some other living arrangement, up from 11% of 1975. 

Perhaps the biggest difference between then and now is that there's no longer a dominant type of living arrangement for the age group, making young adults increasingly difficult to target.

Source: Census Bureau, The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975–2016

More Adults Living Without Children

Fifty years ago only about half of adults lived in a household without children under age 18, according to the Census Bureau. Today nearly three-quarters do. The share of adults without children in the household climbed from 52.5 percent in 1967 to 71.3 percent in 2016. Behind the increase are delayed marriage and childbearing as well as the aging of the population. The biggest increase in child-free living has occurred among young adults...

Percent of 18-to-24-year-olds without children in the household

2016: 68.8%

1967: 46.7%

Percent of 25-to-34-year-olds without children in the household

2016: 61.5%

1967: 23.9%

Source: Census Bureau, No Kids in the House: A Historical Look at Adults Living Without Children

30-Year-Olds: Then and Now

Percent of 30-year-olds who were married, had a child, not in school, and lived on their own...

2015: 32%
1975: 71%

Source: Census Bureau, Measuring America: 30-Year-Olds: Then and Now

Partner Status at Age 29

Young adults have been postponing marriage. The latest results from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 are more evidence of this trend. The NLSY 1997 is tracking a nationally representative sample of men and women born from 1980 through 1984 and first interviewed in 1997. The latest results, which examine educational attainment, labor force experience, and partner status, are from the 16th interview of the sample and took place in 2013-14. On their 29th birthday, fewer than half of young adults were married, one in five was cohabiting, and among men the plurality was single...

Marital status of men on 29th birthday
Single: 44%
Cohabiting: 20%
Married: 36%

Marital status of women on 29th birthday
Single: 35%
Cohabiting: 20%
Married: 45%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Market Activity, Education, and Partner Status among Young Adults at 29: Results from a Longitudinal Survey

Who Actually Votes?

Americans are even less likely to vote than it appears. That's what Pew Research Center discovered when it asked its American Trends Panel respondents whether they had voted in the 2014 midterm election and then attempted to match those who said they "definitely voted" with commercially available national voter files. Sixteen percent of respondents who said they "definitely voted" had no record of doing so. The demographic segments least likely to vote are also the ones most likely to say they voted when they did not...

• Young adults: among 18-to 29-year-olds who say they "definitely voted" in the 2014 midterm election, fully 35 percent had no record of doing so. The figure was a smaller 17 percent among 30-to-49-year-olds, 15 percent among 50-to-64-year-olds, and just 7 percent among people aged 65 or older.
• Hispanics: among Hispanics who say they "definitely voted" in the 2014 midterm election, a substantial 27 percent had no record of doing so. Among Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites, the figure was a smaller 15 percent. 

These findings suggest that voting levels measured by the Voting and Registration Supplement to the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS), fielded every two years, are overstated—particularly for young adults and Hispanics. The Census Bureau notes the discrepancy in its report Who Votes? Congressional Elections and the American Electorate: 1978-2014: "Voting rates from the sample surveys such as the CPS are higher than official results." But, says the bureau, "the CPS remains the most comprehensive data source available for examining the social and demographic composition of the electorate in federal elections."

In other words, the CPS is the best we've got. According to the CPS, 20 percent of 18-to-29-year-old citizens and 27 percent of Hispanic citizens reported voting in the 2014 midterm election. Pew's analysis suggests that actual voting rates for these two important segments of the electorate are in fact much lower.

Source: Pew Research Center, Many Americans Say They Voted, But Did They?