Abstract
Although the popular view is that young people are leaving home later, a closer investigation of the data from 1979 to 1995 shows that this is not entirely true. Decreases are observed in the proportion of 15–19 year old men and women living at home at least since the mid-1980s, the increase for 20–24 year old men ceased in 1990, and only 20–24 year old women show a sustained increase. If only unattached young adults are considered instead of the conventional measure, any increases are even more subdued. The overall trend seems to be that while late leavers may be leaving home later, early leavers are leaving earlier or at the same time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1985.Australia’s Youth Population,. A Statistical Profile 1984. Catalogue No. 4111.0. Canberra.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1994.Australian Social Trends 1994. Catalogue No. 4102.0. Canberra.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1995a.Estimated Resident Population by Sex and Age: States and Territories of Australia June 1994 and Preliminary June 1995. Catalogue No. 3201.0. Canberra (and for earlier years).
Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1995b.Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families.
Australia June 1995. Catalogue No. 6224.0. Canberra (and earlier years to 1979).
Bianchi, S.M. 1988. Living at home: young adults’ living arrangements in the 1980s. Centre for Demographic Studies. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington D.C.
Bracher, M. and G. Santow. 1988.Changing Family Composition from Australian Life History Data. Working Paper No. 6, Australian Family Project, The Australian National University, Canberra.
Brass, W. 1984. A note on the estimation of family transition rates from census or survey data. Paper presented to the International Union for the Study of Population and the German Association for the Scientific Study of Population’s Seminar on the Demography of the Later Phases of the Family Cycle, 3–7 September, Berlin.
Carlton, T. 1994. Leaving the nest. Young people living with their parents. Paper presented at the Conference of the Australian Population Association, The Australian National University, Canberra.
Craig, J. 1990. Effects of changing age distribution on five year age-specific rates.Population Trends 59 Spring:30–31.
Di Iulio, O.B. 1981.Household Formation 1911–2001. Research Report No. 10, National Population Inquiry. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Glick, P.C. 1947. The family cycle.American Sociological Review 12:164–174.
Glick, P.C. and Sung-Ling Lin. 1986. More adults are living with their parents: Who are they?Journal of Marriage and the Family 48(1): 107–112.
Goldscheider, F. and C. Goldscheider. 1993.Leaving Home Before Marriage. Ethnicity, Familism, and Generational Relationships. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Goldscheider, F. and C. Goldscheider. 1994. Leaving and returning home in 20th century America.Population Bulletin 48(4) March, 35 pp.
Hartley, R. 1990. The never-empty nest. Comings and goings of young adult offspring.Family Matters, Australian Institute of Family Studies 26:67–69.
Heer, D.M., R.W. Hodge and M. Felson. 1985. The cluttered nest: evidence that young adults are more likely to live at home now than in the recent past.Sociology and Social Research 69(3):436–441.
Katz, M.B. and I.E. Davey. 1978. Youth and early industrialization in a Canadian city. In J. Demos and S. Spence Boocock (eds),Turning Points. Historical and Sociological Essays on the Family. Supplement toAmerican Journal of Sociology 84:S81–S119.
Kiernan, K.E. 1986. Leaving home: living arrangements of young people in six West-European countries. Research Notes.European Journal of Population 2:177–184.
Kiernan, K.E. 1989. The departure of children: the timing of leaving home over the life cycles of parents and children. In E. Grebenik, C. Hohn and R. Mackensen (eds),Later Phases of the Family Cycle. Demographic Aspects. International Studies in Demography. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kilmartin, C. 1987. Leaving home is coming later.Family Matters, Australian Institute of Family Studies 19:40–43.
Kobrin, F. 1976. The fall in household size and the rise of the primary individual in the United States.Demography 13(1):127–138.
McDonald, P. 1993.Family Trends and Structure in Australia. Australian Family Briefings No. 3, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 8pp.
Mayer, K.U. and K. Schwarz. 1989. The process of leaving home: some German data. In E. Grebenik, C. Hohn and R. Mackensen (eds),Later Phases of the Family Cycle. Demographic Aspects. International Studies in Demography. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics. 1991. Netherlands Fertility Survey 1988. Demographic Working Papers, Department of Population Statistics, Voorburg.
Peron, Y., E. Lapierre-Adamcyk and D. Morrissette. 1986. Depart des enfants et contraction des families d’apres les recensements Canadiens de 1971 et de 1981.European Journal of Population 2:155–175.
Wall, R. 1978. The age at leaving home.Journal of Family History 3(2):181–202.
Wall, R. 1987. Leaving home and the process of household formation in pre-industrial England.Continuity and Change 2(1):77–101.
Young, CM. 1974. Ages, reasons and sex differences for children leaving home.Journal of Marriage and the Family 36(4):769–778.
Young, CM. 1982. Mortality and the life cycle in Australia. Chapter 14 in World Health Organization,Health and the Family Life Cycle, Selected Studies on the Interaction between Mortality and the Family Life Cycle, Federal Institute for Population Research, Wiesbaden, Federal Republic of Germany.
Young, CM. 1987.Young People Leaving Home in Australia: The Trend Towards Independence. Australian Family Formation Project Monograph No. 9, Department of Demography, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, in collaboration with The Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne.
Young, CM. 1988. Independence, leaving home and the transition to adulthood of young people in Australia. Paper presented to the Fourth National Conference of the Australian Population Association, University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Young, CM. 1989. The effect of children returning home on the precision of the timing of the leaving home stage of the family life cycle. In E. Grebenik, C. Hohn and R. Mackensen (eds),Later Phases of the Family Cycle. Demographic Aspects. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Young, C. Are young people leaving home earlier or later?. Journal of Population Research 13, 125–152 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03029491
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03029491