PROVIDENCE – The number of young adults living at home with their parents in Rhode Island increased 8.5 percentage points between the years of 2005-2015 to about 85,203, approximately 37.1 percent of all young adults in the state, according to a study from the U.S. Census Bureau released in April.
The study, which focused on young adults, which it classified as 18- to 34-year-old Americans, observed trends of young people nationally over the years 1975 to 2016.
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Rhode Island’s young adults generally followed the national trend. Between 2005 and 2015, the national average of young adults living at home increased 8.1 percentage points, meaning that 34.1 percent of all young adults in the United States were living at home with their parents in 2015.
Inversely, the percentage of Rhode Island young adults living independently declined 10.1 percentage points over the same 10-year span to just over one-third of young adults living independently, with the percentage of those living with roommates increasing 1.6 percentage points to 26.6 percent. This is very much in line with the national trend, which showed over the 10 years from 2005 to 2015 the percent of young adults living independently decreased 10.3 percentage points to 40.7 percent of all young adults, while the proportion of young adults living with roommates increased 2.2 percentage points to 25.2 percent.
Massachusetts reflected a similar trend, with 37 percent of young adults living in their parents’ home in 2015, an increase of 8.3 percentage points from 2005. Following Rhode Island and the national average, the Bay State saw a decrease of 10.5 percentage points of young adults living independently over the 10-year span.
The report noted that nationally, about 16 million young adults between the ages of 18-24, which it categorizes as young millennials, live at home; this is more than half of all Americans in that age bracket.
The study also showed that one in four young people living in their parents’ home are idle, meaning they neither go to school nor work.
Other focuses of the study showed that young adults are marrying later and do not see marriage as an indicator of adulthood, while education has become a more prevalent marker of adulthood. The study also showed that since 1976, young men are increasingly falling into the bottom of the income bracket, earning less than $30,000 a year, from 25 percent in 1976 to 41.4 percent of young men in 2016.
Young women’s pay has risen since 1976, but remains lower than young men’s. The study also showed that young adult women’s median income increased 28.5 percent since 1976 when adjusted to 2015 dollars but is still nearly $11,000 less than the median young men’s income.
Of all young women 3.2 percent were less than half as likely to make $100,000 a year or more than men, with 7.6 percent earning more than that benchmark.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web Editor.
