US Adults in their mid-20s are now more likely to live with a parent than a spouse

Young adults are becoming much less likely to share their home with a spouse or children; instead, they are moving back in with parents, or living with roommates and/or unmarried partners.

26-year-olds provide a stark example: 50 years ago, over three-quarters were married and living with their spouse; today, this living arrangement has shrunk to just 24 percent. In 2018, there were 300,000 more 26-year-olds living with parents than spouses.

These trends mean that across the country, the nuclear family household is slowly disappearing. In 2018, the number of nuclear family households was the same as in 1984, when the United States population was 27 percent smaller. Nuclear families are becoming more expensive to maintain, and we see them declining in 20 of the nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas.

Conversely, it is becoming much more common for multiple family units to live together under one roof. In some metros, these “unrelated” households have more than doubled since the start of the Great Recession.

Source

Is this worrying!?

Worrying? Alarming!

Financially speaking this is a very smart thing to do. Why waste money on rent/or house payment if your parent's house has enough room for you?

Other countries do this and it is the norm and isn't looked down upon.

And the idea of nuclear family is slowing fading away because single earner family members can no longer provide for an entire family.

In the 70's and 80's a single earner could pay for a house and raise a family. With wages and benefits the way they are now, it now takes 2 people to earn an income to support themselves. Corporations take advantage of this and refuse to pay living wages.

Would you want to live with family members in a house or live alone?

I would rather choose the latter.

It sure is significant to "move out" from your parents house. That could be what really defines you as an independent adult. It is like some think, you are not adult unless you move out from your parents. And, those remarks are made like "ha ha, he is still living with his parents." The irony is, being told good habits like "don't smoke and don't drink too much" in their childhood, some people grow up only to move out to smoke and drink and use drugs in the new house. Besides that, economically you could save a lot of money by living with your parents. Technically you would not have your "own house," but your cash accounts could be much higher if you don't have to pay rent / mortgage.

Not surprising. Relative wages and costs of living have not risen equally. I've found living on my own to be fairly manageable, even when earning a fairly low wage. But that's not possible everywhere, namely big cities. And with student debt, I also see why young couples buying a house together isn't nearly as common as it used to be. Education costs are insane and it is difficult to find a job with decent pay without at least some higher education.

It makes perfect sense when you consider the price of rent and homes in major cities and because more people are likely to be single and live with parents than have an SO at all.

I don't see a problem with it to be honest.

Marriage and kids meh.

I'm ok with that.

I left when I was 18 and couldnt imagine moving back. Independance is an amazing feeling and the thought of living with my parents again sounds like a total drag.

On top of that, I think my parents would slap the shit out of me if I tried moving back in.

I was 26 (almost 27) when I finally moved out. I regret not being able to do it sooner really, as I enjoy being independent and having my own life. However, some young people might be happy living with their parents if they're supportive enough. I think it's more acceptable now than it was twenty years ago or so. I would still prefer to have my own place though. I do think thats a goal that everyone should at least try to strive for.

This might seem alarming in the US, but in other countries living with family--whether children with parents, or parents with children--is often commonplace and there is no stigma attached to it.

Frankly, with the poor and middle-class having less buying power than ever, it's a very smart thing to do. Pooling resources, especially in things as expensive as rent, with people you know and trust is just good sense.

We need to be OK with this, at least until housing becomes reasonably priced again.

Living on your own is nice, but expensive, and frankly there's pros and cons to both situations. On one hand, you will probably need roommates of some kind, so why not your parents who probably already own a home and extra rooms; then again, it's hard to live your life with your parents in it on a daily basis.

Would be awkward to come home drunk with a date and have really loud sex in my childhood home, with my parents in the next room.

The "American Dream" of a single family dwelling, a spouse and 2.3 kids isn't sustainable, nor is it typical of human civilization throughout it's history. Especially now that the cost of living has gone up so dramatically in North America, and wages haven't risen to match.

It doesn't help when the boomer parents think that their kids have it the same as they did back in the 60's and 70's, and instead of supporting their kids, they force them into bad financial situations that leads to extreme debt and chronic depression.

Yes and that's what I do. I don't see any reason to move out. It's really expensive to do so.

Birthrate will lower when people do this, because people won't feel lonely and a 'need' to look for someone new to be with. But I'm not sure that's really a problem. In my country, immigrants tend to make lots of babies.

You have to put in a little effort to soundproof the rooms. I have a floating floor and concrete walls. With a decent bed nobody would suspect a thing, really. You could also use ballgags or something? I'm not that into sex so I never had that problem.

I think another aspect at play here is just how difficult it is for young adults to find roommates to purchase apartments and houses with. A great portion of the country has young people that grow up with very few friends, and many friendships and relationships they find themselves in are shallow.

If you're in your mid-20's and racked up student debt, racked up some credit card debt, and work at your local supermarket, you won't be able to afford much else besides a studio apartment on your own. The way most people manage (and live in nicer, suburban areas) is by getting roommates. But people are bastard-covered bastards with bastard creme filling, mostly. So people are stuck between the option of living in some flat next-door to a bunch of drug-dealers in the city, or staying at home and saving up lol.

@loco145: "Is this worrying!?"

It's worrying in the sense that people don't have enough money to go live on their own. It means that, for whatever reason (debt, poor job opportunities, etc) they don't have the financial freedom to go live independently from their parents. The whole "lack of spouse" thing is not particularly concerning as people are living longer and getting married later, but I would think that the lack of income that allows people to live on their own is something that they would change if they had the power to do so.

Scrubs fan? Sounds like a Dr . Cox quote.

On-top: The system has been finessed so that wages are not rising with the cost of living. We live in a country with corporations making record profit while not returning those profits into their human resources (employees).

I live with my parents

@shellcase86: It is a Dr. Cox quote lol. I probably butchered it a bit, I just kind of spouted it off from memory.

And yeah idk, I guess I'm not sure how people can afford it.

Maybe in the eyes of some people I don't really matter because I'm working customer service and they view it as a dime-a-dozen job, but from my viewpoint customer service is kind of all around us and people require it on a daily basis. Not everyone can be a doctor or lawyer, or auto mechanic, or a chef, or an astrophysicist... But everyone needs to buy groceries.

I know it can lead into this whole other discussion, but it's frustrating how some of the big stores in the country over-complicate everything and roll out horrible new plans that are even more horribly executed, wasting millions of dollars that could have gone into the pockets of their workers. From the customer's perspective it's easy to blame the workers at the store level for the state of the store, but a huge portion of the problem is the HQ completely screwing everyone over. It's a gigantic financial and engineering train-wreck.

Conservatives: You young people need to buy houses of your own and start families of your own! Families are the social fabric!

Young people: Okay, pay us enough to support families

Conservatives: You young people are so entitled! You want everything handed to you!

Young people: Okay, I guess I won't start a family I can't afford to support, then

Conservatives: Oh, so you don't want a family? Look, it's true, young people hate families, they're trying to destroy America!

Plenty of cheap housing where i live. Sorry it costs so much to live in San Francisco, but if you like to live in plush cities, be prepared to pay the price.

They lucky to live with mom and dad, at least have a home. Democrat cities are full of people in tents on street.

Ehh... idk about you but the new generations, specially left wing people do not look fit to have a family in any way possible. The US economy is strong, plenty of opportunity out there. There is shortage of construction workers, carpenters and so on these days. You can make like 60 to 100K a year as a carpenter. Kids these days are too weak, phone zombies. They indoctrinate them at school with >>> white guilt, have no children because climate will kill us LOL, we racist country need to pay reparations, we need open borders LMAO, so on. Complete lunacy. Oh and of course, orange man bad because.... ugh... he racist! Yea right...