Mind-boggling amounts of student debt, for a college education that may not even be worth it and may not even afford minorities the same kinds of opportunities as a white person, in addition to an older marrying age, are reportedly two of the main reasons more young women are living with their parents. According to a Pew Research Center report, the number has surpassed the previous record set in the 1940s.
The highest record was set in 1940 when 36.2 percent of women ages 18-34 lived with parents or relatives. The Pew Research Center says in 2014 36.4 percent of young women were living with parents or relatives.
This reflects the increase in young men living at home as well, with Pew research showing the increase from 2007 to 2012 of young adults living with their parents: 32 percent to 36 percent. These figures were concluded to be direct products of the Great Recession which created these so-called “boomerang kids,” describing young adults who had moved out for college and moved back in with their parents post-graduation. Boomerang kids cited things such as high unemployment rates, not having enough money, and high student loan debt, as reasons for choosing to move back in. A Pew report released this July showed that although unemployment rates have improved, even more young adults are living with their parents than during the recession.
Young adults have even stopped dorming at college just to shave off some money from their outstanding debt, with Sallie Mae reporting in 2014 that more than half of college students do this.
Pew researcher Richard Fry is the one who concluded an increase in college attendance and young adults waiting longer to get married are the reasons more young adults are living at home. See, back in the 1940s the average young woman was getting married at 22, before she became a spinster y’know, thus leaving the nest. In 1940 a whopping 62 percent of 18-34 year-old women were married, compared to today’s 30 percent.
Of course the rate of young women living at home is going to be the highest it’s been at the ridiculous rate tuition keeps rising and the way rents keep going up. The system is broken and you're not at fault, so tell your relatives to save themselves the "pick yourself up by the bootstraps" talk and just crash with your parents until you stack that guap.
[via Fortune]
