Pew Analysis: Growing Number of Young Adults Living With Parents

More than one-third of the country's young adults ages 18 to 31, a record 21.6 million, were living in their parents' home in 2012, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

The analysis found that 36 percent of the so-called Millennials still lived at home, the highest percentage in at least four decades.

It also represents a steady increase over the 32 percent in that age group who were living with their parents before the Great Recession in 2007 and the 34 percent doing so when it officially ended in 2009.

At least a third, and perhaps as many as half, of the 21.6 million Millennials are college students, including those who live in dormitories during the academic year, according to the analysis.

The analysis also showed that although younger Millennials, ages 18 to 24, are much more likely to be living with their parents than older ones, ages 25 to 31, both age groups have seen a rise in this arrangement.

Among the main factors driving the trend were found to be declining employment, rising college enrollment, and declining marriage.

But they don't account for all of the increase in living at home since 2007. A Pew Research trend analysis also showed that within each of the demographic groups — the unemployed, college students, and the unmarried — a higher share of young adults were living in their parents' home in 2012 than in 2007.

The analysis is based on the March Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of approximately 75,000 households. The specific data used in the report comes from surveys taken from March 2007 to March 2012.