Key Facts & Findings
- More young Americans have lived with a parent than with a spouse or partner since at least 2014, a reversal from 1960, when partnered co-residence outnumbered parental co-residence three to one.
- UK “boomerang” young adults rose from 2.4 million to 3.4 million between 1998 and 2017, a 40% increase, with the steepest rises in the highest-cost region (London, +41%).
- EU housing cost overburden affects 9.7% of 15-to-29-year-olds, compared with 8.2% of the general population, directly linked to earlier home-leaving risk.
- OECD mean age at first marriage rose from 25 (women) / 28 (men) in the early 1990s to roughly 32 / 34 by 2021, closely intertwined with delayed household independence.
- Cultural variation is stark and largely independent of income: Croatia’s 77% youth co-residence rate is 61 percentage points higher than Denmark’s 16%.
- EU research finds extended co-residence grew fastest specifically among the unemployed and those in temporary employment between 2011 and 2019.
For the first time since data collection began, more young Americans live with a parent than with a spouse or partner. Pew Research Center’s landmark 2014 analysis found 32.1% of adults aged 18 to 34 lived in a parental home, edging out the 31.6% living with a spouse or partner, a dramatic reversal from 1960, when 62% lived with a partner and just 20% lived with parents. A decade later, the pattern has only deepened: nearly 47% of Americans aged 18–29 were living with parents as of a recent 2025 measurement, and the EU-wide average age at which young people leave the parental home reached 26.2 years in 2024, ranging as high as 31.3 in Croatia.
Is the Transition to Independent Living Actually Happening Later?
The historical trend is unambiguous and long-running, not a recent or pandemic-specific blip. Canadian census data shows the share of 20-to-29-year-olds living with parents rose from 26.9% in 1981 to 42.3%-42.5% by the mid-2000s and 2011.
UK research found the share of 20-to-34-year-olds at home rose from 19% to nearly 26% between 1998 and 2017 alone, a 40% increase in the raw number of “boomerang” young adults, from 2.4 million to 3.4 million. In the U.S., median age at first marriage climbed from about 23 (men) and 20 (women) in 1960 to 30.2 and 28.6 respectively by 2024, a shift closely intertwined with, though not solely responsible for, delayed household independence.
Housing Costs and Affordability
Housing affordability is consistently identified as a leading, though not sole, driver. Eurostat data shows young people who leave the parental home earlier face a materially higher risk of housing cost overburden, and 9.7% of EU 15-to-29-year-olds spent 40% or more of disposable income on housing in 2024, compared with 8.2% of the general population.
UK research attributes the rise in “boomerang” young adults directly to high private rental costs following reduced access to home ownership and social housing, with regional variation tracking housing cost differences closely, London saw a 41% rise in young adults living with parents, compared with just 14–17% in lower-cost regions like Yorkshire and the North-East. In Australia, nearly two in five boomerang children cite financial struggle as the top reason for returning home, according to the 2024 Empty Nesters Report.
Education and Longer Transitions Into Work
Extended participation in tertiary education delays the point at which many young adults achieve full-time, stable employment sufficient to support independent housing. Survey methodologies differ in how they treat this group, some, like the EU-SILC survey, count financially dependent students as living with parents even when physically residing elsewhere for study, which is one reason estimates of parental co-residence can vary substantially depending on methodology, as documented in Ireland’s case where Census 2022 found 41% of 18-to-34-year-olds physically at home compared with roughly two in three counted as dependent under SILC’s broader financial definition.
Marriage and Partnership Timing
Delayed marriage and partnership formation is both a cause and a consequence of extended parental co-residence, making the two trends difficult to fully disentangle. As the OECD documents, the average age at first marriage across member countries rose from 25 (women) and 28 (men) in the early 1990s to close to 32 and 34, respectively, by 2021, with cohabitation increasingly serving as an intermediate step, particularly in Nordic countries, that itself often requires independent housing, complicating any simple story in which delayed marriage alone explains delayed household departure.
Cultural Differences
Cultural norms produce some of the starkest variation in the data, largely independent of income level. Southern and Eastern European countries, Croatia (77%), Greece (73%), Portugal (72%), Serbia (71%), and Italy (71%), show far higher parental co-residence among 18-to-34-year-olds than Northern European countries with comparable or higher income levels, such as Denmark (16%), Sweden (17%), and Finland (18%). This gap reflects durable cultural expectations about when and why young adults are expected to establish independent households, not simply differences in housing affordability or labor market conditions.
Gender Differences
Statistics Canada research attributes a documented gender gap in parental co-residence, young men consistently more likely to live at home than young women, partly to women tending to form partnerships earlier, prompting earlier household departure.
EU research covering 2011–2019 similarly found a persistent gender gap (27.3% of women aged 25–34 living with parents in 2019 versus 23.9% of men), though with women’s co-residence rate growing faster over the study period, suggesting the gap may be narrowing over time even as overall co-residence rises for both sexes.
Income and Employment Differences
Academic research using EU data from 2011 to 2019 found the “nesting” phenomenon, extended parental co-residence, was most pronounced and grew fastest specifically among the unemployed and those without permanent employment contracts, indicating labor market precarity, not just housing costs in isolation, meaningfully shapes the trend.
Australian boomerang-child data corroborates this at the individual level, with financial struggle the single most commonly cited reason (39%) for adult children returning home, ahead of relationship or personal issues (30%).
Average Age of Leaving the Parental Home, EU Countries, 2024
| Country | Average Age of Leaving Home (Years) |
|---|---|
| Croatia | 31.3 (highest in EU) |
| Slovakia | 30.9 |
| Greece | 30.7 |
| Italy | 30.1 |
| Spain | 30.0 |
| Bulgaria | ~30.0 |
| Ireland | ~28 (comparative estimate) |
| EU-wide average | 26.2 |
| Estonia | 22.4 |
| Sweden | 21.9 |
| Denmark | 21.7 |
| Finland | 21.4 (lowest in EU) |
Drivers of Extended Parental Co-residence: Summary Evidence
| Driver | Supporting Evidence |
|---|---|
| Housing costs | 9.7% of EU 15–29-year-olds housing cost-overburdened (2024); UK regional co-residence rises tracked local housing costs |
| Extended education | SILC vs. Census methodology gap (Ireland: 41% physical vs. ~66% financially dependent) reflects student dependency |
| Delayed marriage | OECD mean age at first marriage rose from 25/28 (1990s) to 32/34 (2021), women/men |
| Culture | 61-point gap between Croatia (77%) and Denmark (16%) in 18–34 co-residence, unexplained by income alone |
| Employment precarity | EU “nesting” grew fastest among unemployed and temporary-contract workers, 2011–2019 |
| Gender | Women’s co-residence rate grew faster than men’s in EU, 2011–2019, but remains structurally lower due to earlier partnership formation |
What This Means for Fertility and Household Formation
Because independent household formation has historically preceded or coincided with family formation in most high-income countries, delayed departure from the parental home is one contributing factor researchers examine alongside education, career establishment, and direct housing costs when studying rising ages at first birth and increasing childlessness, documented separately in coverage of shrinking family networks. The relationship should be treated as correlational and multi-causal rather than a simple, isolated causal chain from delayed home-leaving to delayed parenthood.
Is the Trend Permanent?
Evidence suggests the trend is structural rather than a temporary artifact of any single economic cycle. The rise from 1981 through the 2010s in Canada, the 1998–2017 trend in the UK, and the multi-decade OECD-wide rise in marriage age all predate the most recent economic disruptions, indicating durable underlying forces, housing costs, extended education, and shifting cultural and marriage norms, rather than a temporary reaction to any one recession or crisis.
At the same time, some short-term fluctuation does occur: U.S. co-residence rates among 18-to-29-year-olds returned toward pre-pandemic levels (about 47%) after temporarily spiking during the pandemic itself, showing the trend responds to acute economic shocks even as its long-term trajectory remains upward.
Conclusion
The delayed transition out of the parental home is not a single-cause phenomenon, however tempting it is to blame housing costs alone. Housing affordability, extended education, delayed marriage, employment precarity, and durable cultural norms each contribute independently, and their relative weight shifts substantially from country to country, visible most starkly in the 61-percentage-point gap between Croatia and Denmark, two countries with very different cultural expectations but comparable European housing pressures.
What the multi-decade data makes clear is that this is a structural shift in the timing of adult independence, not a temporary response to any single economic moment, and its downstream effects on marriage and family formation timing will likely continue to unfold for years to come.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why are young adults staying with parents longer?
A combination of rising housing costs, extended education, delayed marriage, labor market precarity, and, in many countries, durable cultural norms, with the relative weight of each factor varying significantly by country.
2. What is the average age young adults leave home?
26.2 years across the EU as of 2024, ranging from 21.4 in Finland to 31.3 in Croatia; comparable single-figure U.S. data is less standardized, though roughly 47% of 18-to-29-year-olds were living with parents as of 2025.
3. Which countries have the highest rates of parental co-residence?
Croatia (77%), Greece (73%), and Portugal (72%) have among the highest rates of 18-to-34-year-olds living with parents, compared with under 20% in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.
4. Do young people cannot afford to move out because of housing costs alone?
Housing costs are a leading factor, but not the only one, extended education, delayed marriage, employment precarity, and cultural norms all contribute independently, based on available research.
5. Is the trend caused mainly by housing costs?
No single factor fully explains the trend; academic research specifically finds unemployment and temporary employment status are strongly associated with extended co-residence, alongside but distinct from general housing cost pressure.
6. Are men or women more likely to live with parents longer?
Men are somewhat more likely to live with parents than women in most studied countries, a pattern researchers attribute partly to women forming partnerships and leaving home earlier on average.
7. Is this trend new, or has it been building for decades?
It has been building for decades, Canadian data shows co-residence rates rising steadily from 1981 onward, and UK rates rose substantially between 1998 and 2017, both well before recent economic disruptions.
8. Does delayed home-leaving affect marriage and fertility?
Researchers treat it as one contributing factor among several, alongside education and direct housing costs, in explaining rising ages at first marriage and first birth, though the relationship is correlational rather than a simple direct cause.
9. What is a “boomerang” young adult?
A term describing young adults who moved out of the parental home and later returned, typically for financial reasons; UK data shows boomerang young adults grew from 2.4 million to 3.4 million between 1998 and 2017.
10. Is the trend reversing anywhere?
U.S. data shows some reversion toward pre-pandemic co-residence levels after a temporary pandemic-era spike, but the multi-decade underlying trend across most high-income countries remains upward rather than reversing.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, “The Boomerang Generation,” 2014 (32.1% vs. 31.6% co-residence finding).
- Eurostat, “Young people – housing conditions,” Statistics Explained, 2025.
- OECD, “Marriage and divorce,” Society at a Glance 2024; OECD Family Database SF3.1.
- Civitas (UK think tank), boomerang children research based on ONS data, reported 2019.
- Statistics Canada, 2011 Census data on young adults living with parents.
- Australian Seniors / MyMavins, “Empty Nesters Report 2024.”
- Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Census 2022 and EU-SILC methodology comparison note.
