More Young American Adults Living With Parents

A new report from the US Census Bureau reveals that more young American adults are living with their parents, especially men, a trend that does not appear to be linked to the recession. The new data comes from America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2011, a series of tables from the 2011 Current Population Survey, details of which were released on Thursday.

The Survey looks at the socioeconomic characteristics of families and households at the national level. The latest one was conducted in February to April this year and covers a nationwide sample of about 100,000 addresses.

Author Rose Kreider, a family demographer with the Bureau's Fertility and Family Statistics Branch, told the press:

"The increase in 25 to 34 year olds living in their parents' home began before the recent recession, and has continued in 2005 beyond it."

The report shows that the percentage of young men aged 25 to 34 living in their parents' home went up from 14% in 2005 to 19% to in 2011, while for young women the figures were 8% to 10% over the same period.

There was a similar pattern in the age group below that too. 59% of young men aged 18 to 24 and 50% of young women are living in their parents' home in 2011, up from 53% and 46% respectively in 2005.

The report says it counts college students living in dormitories as living in their parents' home.

As well as this trend, the report shows that the percentage of households with just one person has risen slowly but steadily in the last half of the 20th century and continued into the 21st.

In 1960, the proportion of households containing just one person was 13%; in 2011 it is 28%. The figure has not changed significantly from year to year, but the direction has been steadily upward, with a small dip from 2008 to 2010.

The report also reveals that in 2011, 20% of households are occupied by married couples with children: half of what it was back in 1970, when 40% of households were occupied by married couples with children.

Also, in 2007, when the recession began, the proportion of married couple family groups with children younger than age 15 who had a stay-at-home mother was 24%. That figure has dropped slightly in recent years during the recession, to 23% in 2011.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today


(source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237128.php)