Generally speaking, millennials are looked down upon as entitled, lazy, and lacking the gumption of the hard-working Americans who came before them. Trashing this generation has become the media’s national pastime. Well buckle in as the “back in my day-ers” load the cannons with new fodder, because according to Pew Research, 18-34 year olds are living at home more than any other arrangement for the first time since 1880.
This could be out of necessity, with difficult-to-overcome student loans combined with a less-than-ideal job market sucking everyone into their Mom’s basement. Or it could be because less young people are getting married and outside the box living arrangements are on the uptick. Note that there were actually more 18-34 year olds living with their parents in 1940, but it is now the most common arrangement — important to note the terms there. Also, considering that the two highest percentages of young-people-living-with-parents both came after major depressions, might we suggest that it’s not quite as easy as “millennials suck”?
This data also points to a ripple effect throughout the United States, as we see families getting started later in life. If John Hughes movies taught us anything, the fact that young men are living at home alone probably makes it that much harder for them to move out and find love in the first place.
This data also says single men are more likely to be living with their parents than single women, which reinforces stereotypes of dudes in their basements (and probably correlates to people who are upset about the Ghostbusters remake) but Pew has no statistics for that.
(Via Fusion)
*The author would like to state that basements are cool in the summers and he in no way wants to disparage them. He is a blogger, after all.
Changes have been made to this piece after publication. -ed
