Philip Cohen, a sociologist who teaches at the University of Maryland – College Park, recently wrote about the sudden spike in young people (aged 18-29) living in the home of a parent or grandparent.
Based on data from the Current Population Survey, which is conducted on a monthly basis by Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the sudden rise in both the number and percentage of young people living in the home of a parent or grandparent is unprecedented.
Cohen concludes his piece by summarizing the shift and suggesting the change is not a positive one:
For scale, there are 51 million (non-institutionalized) adults ages 18-29 in the country. If 2020 was like the previous three years, I would expect there to be 21.9 million of them living with their parents. Instead there are 24.8 million living at home, an increase of 2.9 million from the expected number. That is a lot of rent not being spent, but even with that cost savings I don’t think this is good news.
So What?
With so many changes happening as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had not considered how many young people (ages 18-29) were moving back home (or moving in with a parent or grandparent rather than living on their own or with others).
Considering the number of colleges and universities that will be fully online in the fall and the number of young people who will have their unemployment benefit reduced by $600 a week later this month, it seems likely that this unusually high number will climb even higher in the months ahead.
As faith communities and faith-based non-profits continue to innovate, it is essential that faith leaders are mindful of the many changes impacting their stakeholders, including the increased number of young adults returning to live with a parent or grandparent.