Almost a third of the 18 to 34 year-old people in the United States are living with one of their parents, still feeling the effects of the recession and the slow recovery in the job market. Also more young adults are living in poverty today and have lower rates, compared with their counterparts in 1980, even though they are more educated than young adults in 1980. The 73 million young adults currently 18 to 34 years old, often referred to as millennials, comprised the largest such population in the last three decades. Nonetheless, their share of the population is actually smaller today than in 1980, when the young adult population included the baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, according to data from the Census Bureau’s latest statistics from the American Community Survey.
In 1980, 22.9 percent of the young adult population (age 18-34) were living with a parent. In 1990, the percentage increased to 24.2 percent, then dipped to 23.2 percent in 2000, and in 2009-2013 it reached the highest level recorded (30.3 percent). Also, one in five young adults lives in poverty (13.5 million people), up from one in seven (8.4 million people) in 1980 and 65 percent of young adults are employed, down from 69 percent in 1980. Data also shows that 22 percent have a college degree, up from 16 percent in 1980.
Unlike in prior generations, the majority of millennials have never been married. Only about three in 10 young adults have ever been married, down from six in 10 in 1980. The state with the highest share of married young adults is Utah (51 percent); the lowest is Rhode Island (25 percent).
The percentage of young adults today who are foreign born has more than doubled since 1980 (15 percent versus 6 percent), with one in four millennials, or 17.9 million, speaking a language other than English at home. That proportion is higher still in New York, New Jersey, Texas, New Mexico and Nevada (where it is about one in three) but is highest in California (where it is about one in two).