Only 20% of Americans are hitting life's 'big four milestones' — and the reason is society
What seemed like a straightforward checklist of adulthood 50 years ago now seems like a distant objective.
Nearly 50 years ago, the path to adulthood was straightforward — by the time most Americans hit 30, they had likely moved out, found steady work, gotten married, and started a family. But the latest Census Bureau data shows that vision has all but unraveled. What once defined adulthood for half of young Americans now applies to barely 1 in 5, and the people who follow the once-classic path of marriage, children, and independent living have plummeted to just 8%.
The contrast with the past is stark — in 1975, 45% of 25- to 34-year-olds had already reached all four "milestones"; by 2024, that number fell to 21%. Instead, the most common path now is economic, not familial. 28% of young adults today live away from their parents and are in the workforce, but haven’t necessarily married or had children. Nearly five decades ago, only 6% fit that description, and it ranked as the fourth most common pathway; now it tops the list.
Every one of the four most common milestone combinations — living independently with a job, living independently with a job and marriage, living independently with a job and a child but not marriage, all four milestones together, and other varied paths — includes working. That wasn’t true in the 1970s, when it was common for one parent — most often a woman — to be married with children and outside the labor force. Back then, about 22% of young adults had reached the trio of living independently, being married, and raising kids. The Census Bureau’s working paper highlights that the milestones themselves haven’t disappeared, but the order and weight people give them have changed dramatically.
For many, the sheer cost of housing, childcare, and even groceries makes marriage and parenthood feel out of reach. A recent study found that a family of four earning under $200,000 could live comfortably in only seven states. Meanwhile, a survey shows that 32% of American households have an income at or below $49,999, which is not enough to be considered middle class. According to Fox 4 News, researchers Paul Hemez and Jonathan Vespa, who co-authored the Census analysis, wrote, "Moving out of the parental home, getting a job, tying the knot, and having kids used to be the most common pathway to adulthood."
Today, they explain, young adults are putting financial security first, with more than 80% of Americans in one survey saying leaving their parents’ house was necessary for adulthood, and over 90% said the same about having a full-time job. Far fewer tied adulthood to marriage or parenthood. However, some milestones have held steady — roughly 15% of young adults in 1975 had managed to live independently, work, and marry, without children. That figure is almost identical in 2025 at 14%, and while only 3% of young adults in 1975 had joined the labor force, that number has climbed to 9%.
The Census Bureau even added education into its latest research, acknowledging that college and graduate programs now shape adulthood in ways that previous generations didn’t experience. The broader story is that adulthood has become more diverse, with more people following "other combinations" of milestones outside the traditional top four. Living arrangements, career paths, and family structures no longer fall into one predictable sequence.
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