More U.S. Adults Are Living in Multigenerational Households as Families Balance Housing and Caregiving Needs
More U.S. adults are living in households that include both a parent and an adult child, according to a Federal Reserve report that highlights how families are arranging housing and care across generations.
The Federal Reserve Board’s report on the economic well-being of U.S. households in 2025 found that 2% of adults simultaneously lived with a parent and an adult child. The report says that share was 6 percentage points higher than in 2022 and 12 percentage points higher than in 2019.
The finding comes as families make decisions about where relatives live, who provides care and how household budgets absorb the costs of raising children. The report also documents substantial differences in paid-childcare use by family income.
Living arrangements are changing
Multigenerational households can bring parents, adult children and older relatives into the same home. The Federal Reserve’s nationwide household survey tracks those arrangements as part of a broader look at economic well-being, family structure and care work.
The 2% figure refers specifically to adults who lived simultaneously with a parent and an adult child. It does not describe all households that include more than one generation, and it is not a majority of adults. The measure is narrower than a general count of people who live with parents, children or other relatives.
Even so, the change reported over the past several years points to a measurable shift in the way some families organize their homes and responsibilities. The report’s findings connect living arrangements with questions about caregiving, work and household finances without identifying a single cause for the increase.
Childcare choices vary by income
Paid childcare was not used at the same rate across family-income groups, the Federal Reserve report found. That difference matters because families arranging care must weigh the cost of paid services against work schedules, household budgets and children’s needs.
The report describes those decisions as tradeoffs rather than as a single pattern shared by every family. Some households may rely on paid providers, while others arrange care through relatives or other unpaid support. The Federal Reserve’s findings document the income variation in paid-childcare use but do not establish that one arrangement is available or preferable to all families.
A separate Pew Research Center report published in June 2026 found that a majority of working parents with children age 5 or younger said onsite workplace childcare would be very or extremely helpful. Pew also documented difficulties finding before-school, after-school and summer care.
Why the findings matter
Together, the findings show how housing arrangements and care responsibilities intersect with work and family finances. Living with multiple generations can affect who is nearby to provide support, while paid childcare remains tied to what families can afford and what services are available to them.
The Federal Reserve report does not say that housing costs alone caused the rise in multigenerational living. Its broader significance is that household structure, caregiving and childcare are part of the economic conditions families navigate every day.
For policymakers and employers, the data underscores that childcare decisions are also work and budget decisions. For families, the figures reflect the practical choices involved in coordinating care for children and older relatives while maintaining employment and managing expenses.
The report is based on the Federal Reserve’s annual survey of household economic well-being and provides national data on living arrangements, care work, childcare, housing and family structure. The reported trend offers a snapshot of how U.S. households were organized in 2025 and how those arrangements compared with 2022 and 2019.
Sources
- Living Arrangements and Care Work, Federal Reserve Board
- Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025, Federal Reserve Board
- What are parents’ biggest challenges in finding childcare?, Pew Research Center
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