Record share of young U.S. women living with relatives: research

A Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found that 36.4 percent of women between the ages 18 and 34 lived with parents or relatives in 2014, the most since at least 1940, when 36.2 percent lived with family. What happened? It’s a question social scientists have been knocking themselves out to answer for years, and there’s no shortage of theories: Coddled millennials can’t bear the thought of living in a dumpy apartment with roommates and living on ramen, or they’re too emotionally immature to leave the nest, in spite of being better-educated than any generation in history.

Notably, women today also are far more likely to be enrolled in college than in previous decades, and college students – even those enrolled part-time or at a community college – are significantly more likely to live with family than those who are not in school, according to Pew.

Previously, women lived with their parents until they married and only a small share attended college.

“The result is a striking U-shaped curve for young women – and young men – indicating a return to the past, statistically speaking”, Richard Fry, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center, wrote in the report. In the past, especially in the 1970s when there were more jobs available doing industrial, clerical, manufacturing and retail work, it was easier for young people to become independent more quickly.

Housing costs are also high, for both buying and renting, particularly in large cities that attract young adults looking for work. That compares with 5 percent in 1960. Men are also marrying later, typically at 29, whereas in the 1940s they were 24 years old on average.

If you’re a twenty-something living at home, you’re not alone.

Delaying marriage is another factor driving this trend. “I think a lot of those studies are much more complex than I realized, whether it’s a house issue or family issue or life transition issue, people are getting married, having kids and moving”, she said.