40% of non-student adults 18-39 living (or recently lived) at home

Various agencies and surveys tend to present the numbers differently, but they all convey the same message: More and more adult children are living at home. This is one statistic I find especially significant: According to a poll for the National Endowment for Financial Education conducted by Harris Interactive, 40% of American adults aged 18 – 39 either live at home or have done so in the recent past. That’s a shocking figure, partly because it goes all the way up to age 39, and partly because it specifically excludes students.

The same survey finds that adult children are having a financial impact on their parents, which is no surprise. What’s scary is that 26% of the parents with adult children living at home have taken on debt to support their kids, and 7% have delayed retirement.