More women waiting to leave home, getting married later

Young women are living with their parents or relatives at a rate not seen since 1940 as more millennial women put off marriage, attend college and face high living expenses.

A Pew poll says young women are staying home now because they are half as likely to be married as they were in 1940 and much more likely to be college-educated. Economic forces such as increasing student debt, higher living costs and economic .

Historically, Dr. Fry said, most women lived with their parents until they married, and few went to college. Now, more than a quarter of young women attend college – and college students, including those who enroll part-time at community college, are significantly more likely than other young adults to live with their family.

Since 1940, the United States has become far more diverse – and non-Hispanic whites, an ever smaller part of the population, are the least likely to stay at home through their young adulthood, according to the research.

Men and women alike are marrying later – with men, on average, about two years older than their brides – and it is often marriage that signals their departure from the parental nest.

Then, too, rents in some cities have become so high as to be unmanageable for many young adults, especially those with heavy student debt.