Young Adults in the United States: A Profile

Abstract

What do we know about young adults in the United States? How many young adults are there between the ages of 18 and 34? What are their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics? What percent of them have “completed” any or all of the conventional milestones marking normative transitions into adulthood? How many have left home, finished school, work full time, have been married or had children — and by what age? Does the timing and sequencing of these transitions differ for young men and women? How does the “early-transition” cohort among young adults (ages 18-24) — in most respects the most vulnerable during this period of the life course — compare to older cohorts (ages 25-29 or 30-34)? Of those who have not yet formed households of their own, how many still live with their parents? How many live in college dorms or other group quarters? Especially among males in these age groups, how many are in the military, or in prison? In an era of movies like “Failure to Launch” and neologisms like “adultolescence,” this report sketches a profile of young adults in the United States at the turn of the century, based on an analysis of data from the 5% Public Use Microdata Sample of the 2000 census. The data are limited to young adults aged 18 to 34, and broken down for three age groups: 18-24 (“early transition”), 25-29 (“middle transition”), and 30-34 (“late transition”). A summed index (“adultra”) of the five conventional markers of transitions into adult statuses—leaving home, finishing school, entering the workforce, getting married, and having children — was computed: among 18-24 year olds only 16% had reached as many as four or all five of these “milestones,” while 70% of the 30-34 year olds had accomplished four or all five of these transitions into adult statuses. However, these five conventional “milestones” or “markers” in transitions to adult statuses should be seen only as a snapshot, a frozen moment in the life course, not as “completed” or irreversible social accomplishments or changes in social status. Most (and arguably all) of the five are reversible, in principle and in practice: e.g., young adults who leave home at one point in time may later return to live with their parents; those who are no longer attending school may do so subsequently, and those who “drop out” of college may “drop in” years after; those who hold a full-time job now may lose it or leave it for any number of reasons; marriage or cohabitation are scarcely permanent arrangements, but may eventuate in separation or divorce (or the death of a partner) and a new marital status. Even having a child of one’s own living in one’s household can be subject to status change. Nonetheless, such normative markers reflect key exits and entrances into adult statuses, and as such the typology of the five transitions remains useful as a means to sketch, if with broad brush strokes, a heuristically meaningful empirical portrait of the social situation of young adults.