Gradually improving economic conditions aren’t enough to get young Americans out of their parents’ basement.
According to a recent Pew Research Center analysis of census data updated in 2014, there has been a significant increase in Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 living with their parents.
In fact, in 2014, for the first time in 130 years, adults aged 18 to 34 were more likely to be living in their parents’ home than they were to be cohabitating with a spouse or partner, single and living alone, or living outside their parents’ home in some other arrangement.
According to Pew’s analysis, 32.1 percent of Americans 18 to 34 were living in the home of a parent, compared with 31.6 percent who were married or otherwise cohabitating, 14 percent who were living alone and 22 percent who were living in some other arrangement outside a parent’s home.
The largest cause of the change in living conditions is cultural, according to Pew.
“This turn of events is fueled primarily by the dramatic drop in the share of young Americans who are choosing to settle down romantically before the age of 35,” writes Richard Fry, senior researcher for the Pew Research Center. “Dating back to 1880, the most common living arrangement for young adults has been living with a romantic partner, whether a spouse or significant other.”
Pew notes that the age of marriage is rising steadily, signs of a generational postponement or retreat from coupling. The research firm estimates that as many as 25 percent of today’s young adults may never marry.
In 1880, Pew’s census analysis found that 45 percent of Americans between 18 and 34 years old were living with a romantic partner. By 1960, that number had climbed to 62 percent, only to drop by nearly 50 percent over the next half century to 31.6 percent in 2014.
By comparison, in 1960 only 20 percent of young Americans were living with their parents.
Nevertheless, the U.S. census data indicates that at other times large numbers of young people were living in their parents’ household. In 1940, for example, 35 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 lived in their parents’ household, significantly more than in the most recent census figures.