The report examined how different generations have progressed from moving out of their childhood home, forming their own families, and owning homes of their own.
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The percentage of millennials age 25 to 39 who live with their parents doubled across the country from 1991 to 2021, and that increase was especially pronounced in expensive markets like Metro Vancouver, according to a new Statistics Canada study.
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In Metro, the percentage jumped from 8.3 per cent to 19.3 per cent, exceeding the national average of 16.3 per cent, the report found. Among young millennials age 25 to 29, the percentage went up from 16.7 per cent to 36.9 per cent.
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The report examined how different generations have progressed from moving out of their childhood home, forming their own families, and owning homes of their own.
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Vancouver-based StatCan analyst Josh Gordon said the research, which compared census data from 1991, 2006 and 2021 to analyze the housing situations for baby boomers, Generation-X and millennials, showed a complex picture influenced, but not solely driven, by the cost of housing in more expensive cities such as Toronto and Vancouver.
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Gordon said there is also a “life stretching” that is occurring in all cities where young people in 2021, compared to their counterparts in 1991, are taking longer to complete their education, settle into careers, find partners, have kids and retire.
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“There is an indication there is kind of a catching up in some of these metrics as people head into their 30s,” said Gordon. “It speaks to the idea that people are just taking a bit longer to settle down and have a family, and that is a very complicated pattern that we’re seeing across western countries that can’t be isolated to one thing.”
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The study also considered growing ethnic diversity and how in many cities, such as Vancouver, this may also be shifting the “housing trajectories” of millennials compared to earlier generations.
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“There appear to be persistent differences between various ethnic groups in relation to living with parents in young adulthood, in part, connected to different cultural patterns,” said the report.
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In 2021, 22.1 per cent of racialized millennials were living with their parents compared to 13.7 per cent of non-racialized, non-Indigenous millennials.
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But the more expensive cost of housing in cities has played a role in delaying or deferring decisions about moving out, buying a home and starting a family.
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For instance, around 31 per cent of 25- to 39-year-olds in 2021 were parents in Metro Vancouver, compared to a national average of around 42 per cent, Gordon said.
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“It was the lowest rate of millennial parenthood,” in the country, said Gordon. “That’s a notable difference.”
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Metro Vancouver also showed a lower rate of home ownership among millennials (41 per cent) compared to the rest of the country (50 per cent), Gordon said.
