Your parents' basement might be looking pretty good these days.
In 2023, around 40% of younger Americans lived with their parents. Living with mom and dad is a popular safety net for Gen Zers who face steep housing costs, expensive higher education, and a shaky job market.
"If you have the luxury of being able to move back home and pay less for rent, groceries, and other basic bills and put some money away in an emergency fund or towards other big financial goals, it can be a really big deal," Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, told Business Insider.
BI examined the demographics of America's live-at-home young adults — the 42% of 18- to 30-year-olds who lived with at least one parent — using the 2023 American Community Survey, available from the University of Minnesota's Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.
So, who made up that 42%? The charts below show the young adults who were more likely to be living at home.
A majority of young adults living with at least one parent were men
Over half of young adults living with at least one parent were men, while just under half of young adults not living with a parent were men.
There's also a cultural element to multigenerational living. Pew Research Center found Black, Hispanic, and Asian young adults in the US were more likely than white young adults to live with their parents.
Young adults living with at least one parent were more likely not to be in school
The share of young adults living with at least one parent in the household who were in school was about double that of those living on their own — 39% compared to 20%.
They're less likely to have a college degree
Fourteen percent of young adults with at least one parent in the household had a bachelor's degree as their highest educational attainment, compared to 27% of those without a parent.
Single young adults were more likely to live with at least one parent
More young adults without a parent in the household were married than those living with at least one parent. Nearly all young adults living with at least one parent were never married or single, at 96%.
They're not stay-at-home kids; they're more likely to be working than not
Almost two-thirds of young adults with at least one parent in the household were employed, compared to 82% of young adults without a parent in the household. The share of young adults living at home who were out of the labor force — that is, neither employed nor looking for work — was nearly double that of those living on their own.
While many were employed, they weren't earning as much as those not living with a parent
On average, employed young adults with at least one parent in the household weren't working as many hours or making as much money as their peers who didn't have a parent in the household.
According to Pew Research Center researcher Richard Fry, who authored a recent report on where in the country younger Americans live with their parents, young people are more likely to live with their parents when jobs are hard to come by and wages are stagnant. Pew previously found the share of people living in multigenerational households surged during the Great Recession and continued rising afterward.
Living at home can also mean being disconnected from work and school
There are those who choose to live at home for family connection and financial convenience, and there are others who don't have a choice.
So-called disconnected youth who aren't employed or in school made up about 11% of the 16 to 24 age group in 2022, per a 2024 report from the research firm Measure of America. This cohort was more likely than their peers to live in poverty, lack health insurance, and receive government aid. Minorities and young people of color have higher rates of disconnection.
"These are creative young people who, for a whole host of reasons, haven't had the opportunities or the support they've needed to explore what they want to do and figure out how to transition to adulthood in a way that's exciting for them," said Megan Millenky, a senior research associate at MRDC who studies youth development.
In an unsteady economy, it's unlikely that Gen Z and younger millennials' interest in living at home will fade anytime soon. And, as Millenky said, the group reflects "quite a spectrum" of America's socioeconomic ladder.
