Number Of Adults Sharing Households Grew By Millions During Recession

The number of American adults sharing households grew by 11.4 percent during the Great Recession, with the growth driven largely by young adults moving back in with their parents, according to Census Bureau data reported by the Washington Post. 22 million households — 18.7 percent — were shared by adults in 2010, up from 17 percent in 2007. The number of adult children who lived in their parents’ homes grew by 1.2 million to 15.8 million total, and adults between the ages of 25 and 34 accounted for two-thirds of the growth in shared households. Sharing households allowed millions to avoid poverty during the recession, but there are now two million fewer occupied homes than there would be had Americans continued forming households as they did before the recession, economists estimate.