Despite an overabundance of news reports on millennials, one key factor is consistently left out of the mix. According to The Atlantic, one problem with the official statistics is that the Current Population Survey counts students living in dormitories as living with their parents.
Be sure to click on the link to see the graphic.
As you can see in the graph below, the share of 18-to-24-year-olds living at home who aren't in college has declined since 1986. But the share of college students living "at home" (i.e.: in dorms, often) has increased. So the Millennials-living-in-our-parents meme is almost entirely a result of higher college attendance.
That's crucial to know, because the share of 25- to 29-year-olds with a bachelor degree has grown by almost 50 percent since the early 1980s. More than 84 percent of today's 27-year-olds spend at least some time in college and now 40 percent have a bachelor's or associate's degree. More young people going to school means more young people living in dorms, which means more young people "living with their parents," according to the weird Census.
