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Report: Young adults moving back in with parents at highest rate since Great Depression

In February 2020, 47% of young adults resided with one or both parents. That shot up to 52% by July.

As kids head off to college, parents may get some of their independence back.

But a new Pew Research Center report shows young adults are flying back to the nest at a rate not seen since The Great Depression.

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed millions of Americans, primarily young adults, to move in with family members. 

The share of 18-29-year-olds living with their parents has become a majority since U.S. COVID-19 cases began spreading early this year, surpassing the previous peak during the great depression era.    

In February 2020, 47% of young adults resided with one or both parents. That shot up to 52% by July.

"Before 2020, the highest measured value was in the 1940 census at the end of the Great Depression, when 48% of young adults lived with their parents," the report reads. "The peak may have been higher during the worst of the Great Depression in the 1930s, but there is no data for that period."

According to Pew Research Center analysis of monthly Census Bureau data, 2.6 million people total moved back home. 

Two of the main reasons? Job loss and college kids electing to stay home instead of living on campus due to the pandemic.

Here are the demographics:

  • As of July , more than half of Hispanic (58%) and Black (55%) young adults now live with their parents, compared to about half of Asian (51%) young adults
  • While whites account for 49% of the share living at home, they accounted for over two-thirds (68%) of the recent increase of people moving in with mom and dad
  • Growth was sharpest in the south, where the total rose by more than a million with the share jumping from 46% to 52%
  • The northeast retained its status as the region where the highest share of young adults live with parents (57%)

How are parents dealing with kids moving back home? We'll have to wait for that data. No word from the report about if curfews are being enforced.

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