Multigenerational Households are Back in Style

Just thought I would share this blog from a group called
Families After 50
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Multigenerational Households are Back in Style
March 18, 2009

The Pew Research Center announced today their new study about Multigenerational Households. They’ve looked at the data on multi-generational households as far back as 1940, when about 25% of the population lived in a multigenerational household. By 1980 only 12% of the population lived among multiple generations. But according to Pew’s new analyzation of census data, 16.1% of the US population now live with at least two adult generations, or a grandparent and at least one other generation. That’s 49 million Americans living in multigenerational homes.

What has fueled this trend? For one thing, a Pew survey found that 1 in 8 young adults ages 22-29 are living back at home with after being out on their own because of the recession. That "failure to launch" generation of young adults is emerging as a new life stage. In addition, about 20% of older adults are living with younger family members.

Pew speculated that perhaps this increasing trend could be the result of economic woes and/or because today’s older adults are parents to the baby boomer generation, which means they may have more viable adult children with whom to share a household. Culture and immigration are also contributors to this trend – with the increasing immigrant population being more likely to live in multigenerational households.

Multigenerational families also include grandparents raising grandchildren, older adults who move in with their adult children and families in which 3 or more generations are living together.

AARP’s recent study about multigenerational households found similar results, although different data sets were used. AARP found that multigeneraitonal households are growing in number, with 5.0 million in 2000 to 6.6 million in 2009.

Whatever the data sets or causes, it’s a trend we can’t ignore. How many of you are living in one of these multigenerational scenarios?

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