How We’ve Been Delaying Life

The oldest baby boomers were close to 20 when they married:

Now, for five of life’s key milestones, we are older.

Life’s Key Milestones

Pew Research identified five of life’s key milestones that unfold during adulthood. They report that 40 years ago, it was more likely that 21-year-olds had a full time job, were financially independent, and lived on their own. Then, soon after, we married and had a child.

Not now.

Full time Jobs

During the last year for data, 2021, 39 percent of 21-year-olds had a full time job. In 1980, it was 64 percent.

One reason is college. When we compare 2021 to 1980, we find that college enrollment has increased from 31 percent to 48 percent of all 21-year-olds

A Home, a Mate, and a Child

Again comparing now to 1980, many more of us lived away from our parents in 1980. 40 years ago, 62 percent of the 21-year-olds lived away from home while now it’s 51 percent. But the numbers really diverge when it comes to marriage. Just 6 percent of today’s 21-year-olds are married while it was 32 percent in 1980,  Consequently, as you might expect, a larger proportion of 21-year-olds had children in 1980.

However, by the time we are 25 the numbers start to converge, but not entirely. Still, at 25, one third of us are not working full time while in 1980, it was 27 percent. The biggest differece is marriage and kids. For example, 17 percent of 25-year-olds had a child in 2021 while in 1980, we were close to 40 percent.

Gender Differences

When we divide the numbers by gender, we see we are more similar. At 25 years old, today, a woman is as likely to be working full time as her “sister” in 1980. With men, though, in 1980, they were less likely than their 2021 counterpart to work full time and be financially independent.

Our Bottom Line: Consumption Expenditures

Composed of consumption expenditures, investment (mostly businesses but also residential construction) government spending, and net exports, the GDP’s largest component is what you and I spend.

Below, BLS confirms that life’s milestone shape our consumption expenditures:

My sources and more: Always handy for some interesting report, Pew had the facts on life’s milestones. Then, as always, BLS had the statistics.