The number of young adults in the Millennial Generation who are attending college has increased in the past five years, according to a recent analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Pew Research Center.
In March 2012, 39% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 were enrolled in a college or university, an increase from the 35% who were enrolled in March 2007.
Among the trends that the Pew Research Center found is that many of these college students are living at home, presumably in an attempt to curb the costs of college.
Those numbers are part of an overall trend that is finding more young adults living longer with their parents. In 2012, according to the Pew Research Center, 36% of those between 18 and 31 were still living in their parents’ home.
That’s an increase from the 32% of that group who lived at home in 2007, just before the start of the Great Recession, according to the report.
Among that group, those who attended college were much more likely to live with their parents. Among all Millennials who are 18 to 24, 66% of college students lived at home, while only 50% of their non-college peers also stayed with their parents.
“A record total of 21.6 million Millennials lived in their parents’ home in 2012, up from 18.5 million of their same-aged counterparts in 2007,” according to a report on the Pew Research Center website. “Of these, at least a third and perhaps as many as half are college students.”
Also, men were more likely than women to live with their parents. According to the Pew Research Center study, 40% of men between the ages of 18 and 24 lived with their parents, compared to 32% of women.
The Pew Research Center found several different factors that have apparently led to the growing number of Millennials living at home.
First, there is the lower number of 18 to 31-year-olds who have jobs. In 2007, 70% of those in that age group had jobs, a number that is now at 63%.
Another factor is the increasing number of young adults enrolled in college, the study found.
A third factor mentioned by the Pew Research Center report is the lower number of Millennials who are married. That number has dropped from the 30% of 18- to 31-year-olds who were married in 2007 to the 25% who are married today. Unmarried members of this age group are much more likely to be living with parents than those who are not married – 47% versus 3%.
The increase in the number of Millennials living at home breaks with a longstanding trend. According to the Pew Research Center report, the number of younger adults living with parents stayed at about 32% from 1968 to 2007.