More adults are combining households with other families or individuals, the U.S. Census Bureau reports
More young adults are taking up residence in their parents’ house after completing school, thanks to a lack of jobs and a lousy economy. It’s a trend many people would have suspected, and now the U.S. Census Bureau has numbers to back up those suspicions.
The Census Bureau released data yesterday that points to a significant increase in the number of “doubled-up households,” which it defines as a household that includes at least one additional adult, age 18 or older, who is not enrolled in school and is not the householder, spouse or cohabiting partner of the householder.
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“People may cope with challenging economic circumstances by combining households with other families or individuals. The number and percentage of doubled-up households and adults sharing households in the United States increased over the course of the recession that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009,” the Census Bureau stated in its new report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the U.S.
Specifically, the agency reports there were 19.7 million doubled-up households in spring 2007, prior to the recession. By spring 2011, the number of doubled-up households had increased by 2 million to 21.8 million. Percentage-wise, doubled-up households rose from 17% to 18.3% of U.S. households.
Put another way, the adult population increased by 3.8% between 2007 and 2011, but the number of doubled-up adults increased by 12.2%.
Young adults, in particular, are more often living with family members. Prior to the recession, 4.7 million young adults age 25-34 (11.8%) resided in their parents’ household. In spring 2011, that number had climbed to 5.9 million (14.2%).
The Census Bureau says it’s difficult to assess the impact of doubling up on overall poverty rates. Officially, young adults age 25-34, living with their parents, had a poverty rate of 8.4% when the entire family’s income is considered. But if their poverty status were determined using their own income, then 45.3% of these young adults had an income below the poverty threshold for a single person under age 65 ($11,344), the bureau reports.
