Category Archives: Statistics

Adult kids staying at home longer, costing parents more

In the UK, nearly 25% of adults aged 20-34 live at home, according to a recent piece by the BBC. That percentage has been increasing for 15 years.

The length of time those adult children stay at home has also been increasing, along with the cost. The average stay at home is now 10 months, up from 9.7 months last year. Parents spent about £1,640 on extra costs like water and electricity, along with £1,886 on redecorating and upgrading wi-fi.

Read more: Learn my #1 tip for financial planning when adult kids move home.

Canadian census data shows (surprise!) more adult children living at home

The latest Canadian census data shows the number of adult children living with their parents is on the rise again.

As of 2016, 34.7% of adults aged 20 to 34 were living with their parents, up from 33.3% in 2011.

But that number varies quite a lot across the country. In Ontario, 42.1% of adults in this age range live with their parents, and in Toronto specifically, nearly half do so: 47.4%. In Quebec, on the other hand, less than a quarter of 20-to-34-year-olds live at home.

Twenty to 34 is a wide age range that includes university students all the way through established adults. Not surprisingly, more people in their early 20s live with their parents (62.6%) than do people in their early 30s (13.5%). The majority of those in their early 20s who were living with parents said they had never left home, where as most of those in their early 30s had left at some point and then returned.

Living with a parent the most common situation for 18- to 34-year olds

Research from Pew Research Center based on U.S. Census data shows that for the first time in more than 130 years, 18- to 34-year-olds are more likely to live with their parents than with a spouse or partner. In fact, living with their parents is now the most common living arrangement for adults in this age group.

But this statistic gets most interesting when you break it down by gender. Living with their parents has been the most common living arrangement for men aged 18 to 34 since 2009 – that’s seven years of living with mom and dad being the most common situation for sons in this age group. But for now, daughters in this age group are still more likely to live with a spouse or partner than with their parents.

More Canadian seniors declaring bankruptcy

New information from Statistics Canada shows that the number of Canadian seniors in declaring bankruptcy is climbing. More than 82,000 people declared bankruptcy in Canada in 2014, 10% of them seniors. That’s a substantial increase from 8.3% in 2010.

Even more worrisome, Scott Hannah of the Credit Counselling Society told CBC Radio’s BC Almanac that the proportion of seniors among the society’s clients has increased from one in 20 fifteen years ago to one in five today. He told host Gloria Macarenko that boomerang kids are a factor in seniors’ increasing debt problems when the adult children don’t pay their fair share of the living expenses.

Not just adult children moving home

New research shows that in the United States, it’s not just adult children moving back into their parents’ homes. In fact, families are “doubling up” in all kinds of ways — to the tune of 663,000 in-laws and other relatives moving in with family in 2013 alone.

At the same time, more “working-age, unmarried or un-partnered adults” are moving in together as roommates in order to afford their housing costs.

All told, 32% of working age adults are now living in doubled-up homes of one variety or another.

It’s time to work on those communication skills to ensure that all adults sharing a household have the most positive experience possible.

Parents taking out loans to fund 9% of their kids' college costs: Infographic

Online lender NetCredit.com has created an interesting infographic packed with stats about the costs of post-secondary education and how those costs impact student debt.

I’m not surprised to see that 28% of the average student’s college costs are paid for out of their parents’ income and savings. (Though I do encourage all students to pay for as much of their own schooling as they can to give themselves a sense of ownership and a meaningful stake in their own success.)

I am concerned to see, though, that 9% of the average student’s college costs are paid for through parent borrowing. That means the parents, not the students, are taking on loans to pay for college. Let’s hope those parents are being paid back!

Take a look at the infographic below for some other interesting stats and some tips on paying loans back after graduation.

Is it harder for young adults to find jobs than it was a decade ago?

Yesterday, I was a guest on CBC Radio’s national Cross Country Checkup program, which tackled the issue of whether it’s harder for young adults to find jobs than it was a decade ago – and what that means in terms of getting them launched into independence. It was an interesting program, and I found myself wishing I could jump in at many parts of the show, not just in the segment in which I was interviewed.

To the mom who said she was anticipating one of her three kids was likely to boomerang home because 26% of young adults do so, I wanted to say she might want to prepare for two of them: In Canada, the actual number of young people aged 20-29 living at home according to the most recent census is 42.3%. (It varies across the country, of course. In Toronto, which has the most adult children living at home, the number is actually 56.3%)

I had a great twitter interaction with Sumaiya Ahmed, who took some ribbing from guest host Suhana Meharchand for suggesting parents should help their adult children network to find a job. It turns out we agree that parents can be a positive force in their children’s job search, but that it’s also possible to take that help too far.

I wanted to talk to some of the young people who called in saying that it was just too hard to find work that was fulfilling, and that they were giving up high-paying jobs (and expecting financial help from their parents) to pursue opportunities that better aligned with their dreams. I wanted to tell them that pursing your dreams is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, but that in your thirties it’s not your parents job to pay for it (it can be financially challenging for them, too), and sometimes your job will simply not be the source of your life’s fulfilment. Certainly the jobs you have to take on to build experience in the early stages of your career are likely to be less than you’d dreamed. But you need to build experience and gain skills that provide value to an employer before you have the bargaining power to craft your dream career.

All of that to say that if you missed the show, you can listen to it here. My segment begins at about 1:16:00.

Canadian poll shows baby boomers are struggling to financially support adult kids

New research from Canadian bank TD Canada Trust shows the majority of baby boomer parents have financially supported their adult children in some capacity:

They have let them live at home rent free (43%) [yikes – I suggest all adult children living at home should pay at least some rent].
They have subsidized big purchases like a new car or computer (29%).
They have contributed to monthly bills like groceries and rent (23%).
They have helped pay off credit card or other debt (20%) [here’s why that’s a bad idea…].

But the scariest statistic is that one-in-five baby boomers (19%) admit they would consider putting their own security and financial future at risk to help support their adult children. Watch out, or you may find yourself filing for bankruptcy instead of retiring.

About the survey: TD Bank Group commissioned Environics Research Group to conduct an online custom survey of 2,155 Canadian parents who have adult children not attending school. Responses were collected between January 10 and 25, 2013.

Infographic: Percentage of adult children living at home, 1983–2011

Here’s an interesting infographic from the U.S. Census Bureau showing how the trend of adult children living at home changed from 1983 to 2011. Note that in plain language, “adults 25-34 who are the child of the householder” means “adult children aged 25-34 who live at home.”

Note one thing from the small print: “Unmarried college students living in dormitories are counted as living in their parent(s) home.” That’s interesting, because these children are clearly not living at home — though they likely are still being financially supported by their parents.

In any case, look at the difference between adult sons and daughters! In 2011, 59 percent of men aged 18 to 24 lived at home, and 50 percent of women. These number are up from 53 percent and 46 percent, respectively, in 2005.

And note that the trend of adult kids moving home is not strictly tied to the economic downturn. Rose Kreider, a family demographer with the Fertility and Family Statistics Branch and author of the report this figure comes from, said, “The increase in 25 to 34 year olds living in their parents’ home began before the recent recession, and has continued beyond it.”

Almost three million adult children living at home in the UK

New research from Saga Home Insurance provides some interesting statistics about the number of adult children living at home in the UK. The key finding is that around 3 million parents over 50 have adult children living at home.

But broken down by age, the stats get much scarier:

The average age of adult children living at home is 27
About 14% of the adult children living at home are between 31 and 40
32% of parents aged 50–54 have adult children living at home
16% of parents aged 60–64 still have adult kids at home!

Adult Children Living at Home

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