Nests across America are getting less and less empty as adult children take shelter from a lousy economy. According to Pew, 11 percent of adults now live with their parents and 10 percent of adults between 18 and 34 say the recession forced them to move home.

Should Mom and Dad be worried? The New York Times says there’s a risk of adult children developing a long-term dependency, but overall it makes good financial sense for families to stick together in rough times. — PZS

Pew Research Center:

To measure changes in household arrangements, the Pew Research survey asked all adults if they lived in their own home or with one or both parents in the parents’ home. The survey further asked all adults if they had moved back in with their parents “as a result of the recession.” Overall, about 11% of all adults 18 or older live with their parents in their home and 4% of all adults say they were forced to move back with their parents because of the recession, a proportion that rises to 10% among those ages 18 to 34.

About seven-in-ten grown children who live with their parents are younger than 30. About half work full- or part-time, while a quarter are unemployed and two-in-ten are full-time students. Of all adults who report they currently live in their parents’ home, about a third (35%) say they had lived independently at some point in their lives before returning home. While the sample is small, roughly equal proportions of adult men and women live with their parents, while a somewhat larger proportion of Hispanics and blacks than whites live with their parents.

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