This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.
Thanks to a shit economy and a fucked-up housing market, more millennials than ever are living at home with their parents these days.
In Canada, according to last year's census, about one-third of young adults (20 to 34) lived with their parents but when you get to larger cities the number grows even more. Take the Greater Toronto Area, for example. In Canada's largest city almost half—47.4 percent—live at home.
A group of researchers at the University of Waterloo wanted to look into this phenomenon of millennials living with their parents. According to a study recently put out by the researchers, the reasons that GTA millennials live at home vary but the largest, by far, is financial.
"Most young adults living at home do so primarily for economic reasons, with 79.2 percent of young adults living with parents to save money," Nancy Worth, the report's author, said in a press release.
"In the face of precarious work and widespread economic insecurity, parental help offers a chance to save for a house or take on an unpaid internship, which gives people living at home an advantage over those who are living on their own."
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To get their data, researchers at the University surveyed more than 700 people who live with their parents. The authors of the report write that thier research is "challenging stereotypes of Gen Y as lazy or entitled—instead young adults use co-residence to cope in difficult financial times or to live in intergenerational families."
Worth said that living with parents during and after going to post-secondary is the new normal for GTA millennials. One point in the study is that the parents that can provide for their adult children is a system of wealth distribution from one generation to the next—essentially, kids that stay at home are privileged. The study states that this subtle system of wealth distribution means "wealth inequalities will grow in the next generation" between those that could and those that could not provide for their adult kids.
The study also reports that adults who live at home tend to differ from the traditional definition of "adulthood," focusing on a sense of responsibility opposed to concrete markers like having your own place and finishing school. A little over 70 percent of respondents stated they were "satisfied" while living at home. Well, at least they're happy.
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