PITTSBURGH _ At 32 years old, Kaitlin Hipp has found that one of the more awkward aspects of living at home with her parents is when it comes to dating.
"It's not the most attractive thing when you're dating and trying to find a husband," the Brackenridge, Pa., resident said. "But I'm saving money, and I love living with my parents."
Love it or not, living at home with parents has become a way of life for the majority of young adults in America.
The share of 18- to 29-year-olds living with their parents hit 52% in July _ higher than at any point in documented history, including the Great Depression, according to a recent analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center.
"This would suggest some of the economic difficulties that young adults are experiencing is on the level and magnitude that we last saw in the 1930s," said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew and co-author of the report.
The COVID-19 pandemic put older Americans at risk for health complications. But in terms of job losses and the economic impact of the pandemic, young adults were among the first to feel its effect.
In February, 47% of 18- to 29-year-olds were living at home. The number increased to 52% _ more than half the age group population _ in July.
The sharp increase in young folks moving back home reflects job losses during the pandemic shutdowns. But the early termination of the spring semester at colleges across the country also accounts for some of the growth in the pandemic period.
Pew researchers track the share of young people living at home using data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, which is a report that has been produced monthly since 1976.
The peak percentage of young adults living with their parents may have been higher during the Great Depression, but there's no way of knowing exactly what that number was because Census Bureau's data was only collected every 10 years at that time.
"We only have a reading in 1930 when the percentage was 43% and in 1940 when it was 48%," Fry said.
The Great Depression lasted from October 1929 to March 1933, when the first New Deal began. But the effects of the Depression lingered well into the beginning of World War II in 1939.
"It would be nice if we knew how many were living with mom and dad in 1933," Fry said. "But we don't know what the numbers were when the Great Depression was most crushing."
A Pew Research Center survey found about 1 in 10 young adults (9%) say they relocated temporarily or permanently due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the same share (10%) had somebody move into their household.
Among all adults who moved due to the pandemic, 23% said the most important reason was because their college campus had closed, and 18% said it was due to job loss or other financial reasons.
In past decades, white young adults were less likely than Black, Asian and Hispanic young adults to live with their parents. But that gap has narrowed since February. The number of white young adults living at home grew more than for other racial or ethnic groups.
As of July, more than half of Hispanic (58%) and Black (55%) young adults now live with their parents, compared with about half of white (49%) and Asian (51%) young adults.
Hipp, the Brackenridge resident, is among the sizable population of young adults who were already living with their parents, as she has for years. She works as an independent personal trainer and skating coach while struggling to pay off more than $100,000 in student loan debt for a degree in special education.
"I figured by now, I would have my own house, be financially stable, married and having kids," she said. "But that's not where I am."
She's able to make her $600 monthly student loan payments, but her life is in a financial holding pattern while she waits in hopes of an act of Congress that would allow bankruptcy to wipe out student debt.
"Then I'll be able to do something to effectively live my life as an adult," she said.
In her peer group, she knows of plenty of young adults who are not yet living on their own. That includes both of her younger sisters who also live with the family.
Barbara Hipp, 25, said she continues to live at home for different reasons.
It's not out of necessity, but in order to save on expenses while she prepares for the next phase of her life _ homeownership and marriage, hopefully in the next seven years.
"I make enough to live on my own," she said.
She has a full-time job at Point Park University's alumni and giving office.
"Instead of paying rent, I'm saving toward a house," she said.
