Study: The proportion of Canadian youth living with their parents has doubled

Ottawa —
A new study showed that Canadian millennials were twice as likely to live with their parents compared to the baby boomers at the same age, indicating deep changes in housing, family formation, and homeownership ability.

According to the study, 16.3% of Canadians aged 25 to 39 from the millennial generation lived with their parents in 2021, compared to only 8.2% of baby boomers in the same age group in 1991.

The phenomenon was more evident in high-cost cities, reaching 26.1% in Toronto and 19.3% in Vancouver, where home prices and rents pose a significant barrier to moving into independent housing.

The study also showed that the homeownership rate among millennials was lower than previous generations. About 49.9% of millennials owned homes in 2021, compared to around 56% for both baby boomers in 1991 and Generation X in 2006 when they were the same age.

Millennial homeowners were also less likely to live in detached houses compared to previous generations, especially in Toronto and Vancouver, where the share of young residents living in this type of housing has clearly declined over past decades.

Although the decline in housing affordability is an important factor, the study indicates that the phenomenon cannot be explained by prices alone, as other factors played a role, including delayed marriage and childbearing, longer periods of education, and changes in the country’s demographic and cultural composition.

Among Canadian-born millennials, about 40% of those belonging to ethnic groups lived with their parents, compared to 14% among those not belonging to ethnic groups and non-Indigenous people.

The results indicate that the pattern of transition to housing independence has changed significantly in Canada, with overlapping economic pressures and social and demographic transformations shaping the lives of young people.