If you’re a parent wondering when your children, well into their late 20s, are finally going to fly from the nest, you might want to settle in.
A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the trend of young people living at home — by young, the study means those ages 18 to 34 — is only deepening.
Whereas some 26 percent of young adults still lived at home in 2005, census numbers show that in 2015 that number had risen to just over 34 percent, a more than 30 percent jump in a single decade.
Breaking the numbers down further, the report, “The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975-2016,” said that in 2005, a narrow majority of some 51 percent of young people were said to be living “independently” — meaning not with parents or roommates. That was no longer the case a decade later.
By 2015, just 40.7 percent of young adults were living independently as single or married adults or with a romantic partner. Nearly 60 percent lived at home or with a roommate. If younger adults are looking for those states where the majority of their peers are living independently, they’ll find that number has shrunk to six.
Only in the more affordable states of Kansas (51 percent), Iowa (55 percent), Nebraska (54 percent), North Dakota (60 percent), South Dakota (57 percent) and Wyoming (55 percent) do more than half of younger adults live independently as single individuals or in committed romantic relationships.
Missouri sits close to the cusp at 48 percent living independently. In states with higher costs of living such as New Jersey, New York and California, only 33.1 percent of young adults are living independently in each.
“Most of today’s Americans believe that educational and economic accomplishments are extremely important milestones of adulthood,” the report hold.
