Young Adults Living at Home: Variations by Attainment and Geography

Julie Siebens, U.S. Census Bureau

In this paper, I use data from the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS) to examine patterns of living at home among young adults aged 18 to 34. Specifically, I look at patterns of living arrangements by age, educational attainment, race, Hispanic origin, employment status, and state. I find variation in the probability of living at home across all of these characteristics, many of them consistent with the idea that living independently requires more financial resources than living with parents. People with high educational attainment were less likely to live with one or both parents, as were people with employment. However, women were more likely than men to live apart from their parents, and the probability of living with parents varied across states.