Rise of ‘kidults’: More young adults refusing to leave home

Almost half of young Australians are choosing to stay at home with their parents for longer rather than take the leap and move out on their own.

According to data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies, 43 per cent of 20 to 24-year-olds were living in the family home in 2016, compared to 36 per cent in 1981.

Men were the worst culprits, with 50 per cent of those aged 20-24 still living at home, compared to 39 per cent of young women in that age group, however the number of young women staying at home is rising at a faster rate.

“While the percentage of young men living at home only increased slightly between 1981 and 2016, for young women the numbers increased from 27 per cent in 1981 to 39 per in 2016,” researcher Lixia Qu said.

“While the statistics don’t offer a full picture of what’s underlying this trend, one of the factors is likely to be that fewer of today’s young women leave the family home to get married as was once more common.”

The ranks of 25 to 29-year-olds still at home have also grown from 10 per cent in 1981 to 17 per cent in 2016. However, the research also found fewer young Australians in regional areas lived at home compared with their city counterparts.

“Overall, young people living in capital cities were more likely than those living in regional areas to remain at home,” Institute Director Anne Hollonds said.

“In 2016, 50 per cent of young men and 43 per cent of young women in our capital cities lived at home, compared to 42 per cent of young men and 31 per cent of young women of this age in regional areas.

“A range of factors, including the cost of housing in capital cities and time spent in higher education, have contributed to a growing trend for more young people to delay moving out in recent decades.”

Meanwhile, the research found cultural backgrounds also influence the likelihood of young people living at home for longer.

“Among young adults born in Australia, those with Asian, Middle Eastern, African or Southern and Eastern European ancestry are more likely to live with their parents, compared to those with Australian, Northwestern European or New Zealand backgrounds,” Qu said.

Read more: Parents sue 30-year-old son who refuses to move out of home

A similar survey recently revealed that the rise in kidults mooching off mum and dad is down to a generational shift, with more young people completing further education and, as a result, moving out and starting families of their own much later.

And the results also echo the recent case of millennial Michael Rotondo, in New York, USA, whose parents actually took the 30-year-old to court in a bid to get him to move out of their home after he ignored five written notices from them to move out.

What do you think? At what age should your adult children move out?