Who do Gen Z and Millennials live with in America?
A growing number of young people are living with parents or other relatives, leaving fewer “empty nesters”
As we enter the peak summer months, many students and newly-minted college graduates are taking their first steps into the big bad world of work. In decades gone by, a wave of weddings often followed and young newlyweds shacked up to leave a huge cohort of “empty nesters” behind. That is no longer the case.
In the late 1960s, nearly 40% of 18-24 year-olds lived with their spouse. Last year, just 6% did.
Indeed, data plotted from the Census Bureau (and inspired by reddit user u/theimpossiblesalad) reveals how dramatically the living arrangements of America’s youngest adults have changed in the last 50+ years.
71% reported living with either their parents (56%) or other relatives (15%), making it the most common living arrangement by far.
Parent trap
For both cultural and financial reasons, young people are waiting longer to take those big traditional steps in life: the average age of a first marriage is rising, and the median homebuyer age has risen by a decade, to 49, in the last 20 years. If the current trend continues, more 18-24 year-olds will soon live alone than live with a spouse.
And, of course, a growing group of young adults continue to live with parents and other relatives well into their 20s and 30s.
Indeed, some 28% of America’s 25-34 year-olds also reported living with parents or other relatives in 2023.
Part of the reason, of course, is the crisis in housing affordability, as home-price-to-income ratios have increased in almost every single Metropolitan area in America since 1990.
