Majority of Canadians aged 20 to 29 live with parents

Generation Y Canadians (those born between 1981 and 1990) are experiencing a very different life in their twenties from what Generation X (those born between 1969 and 1978) and the Baby Boomers (born 1957 to 1966) experienced. It’s all laid out in a new study in Canadian Social Trends that used data from Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey.

The most strking change is that a slim majority of Gen Y twenty-somethings now live with their parents (51 per cent). In 1998, fewer than a third (31 per cent) of Gen X twenty-somethings were living at home. In 1986, only 28 per cent of twenty-something boomers were with mom and dad.

Considering how many are living at home, it’s not surprising that far fewer are now married or in common law relationships. For the Boomers, 48 per cent were in a serious relationship during their twenties. It was 37 per cent for Gen X and 33 per cent for Gen Y.

But just because they’re living at home doesn’t mean they’re playing video games all day. Roughly the same number do paid work (47 per cent) as the Boomers did in 1986 (51 per cent).

That said, far fewer are doing the unpaid work of raising a child. In 1986, nearly a third (29 per cent) of Boomers had children. Only 19 per cent of Gen Y twenty-somethings had kids in 2010.