Pew Social & Demographic Trends » Generations and Age

The Sandwich Generation

Kim Parker and Eileen Patten — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:00:44 +0000

Overview With an aging population and a generation of young adults struggling to achieve financial independence, the burdens and responsibilities of middle-aged Americans are increasing. Nearly half (47%) of adults in their 40s and 50s have a parent age 65 or older and are either raising a young child or financially supporting a grown child [...]

The Big Generation Gap at the Polls Is Echoed in Attitudes on Budget Tradeoffs

Kim Parker — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:58:32 +0000

Overview The record generation gap that played out at the voting booth in the last two presidential elections is echoed by large differences by age in attitudes about the tradeoff between reducing the federal deficit and preserving entitlements for older adults, according to a new nationwide Pew Research Center survey. Older adults by a lopsided [...]

The Boomerang Generation

Kim Parker — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:55:30 +0000

If there’s supposed to be a stigma attached to living with mom and dad through one’s late twenties or early thirties, today’s “boomerang generation” didn’t get that memo.

Young, Underemployed and Optimistic

Pew Social Trends Staff — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:15 +0000

Young adults hit hard by the recession. A plurality of the public believes young adults, rather than middle-aged or older adults, are having the toughest time in today’s economy.

The Rising Age Gap in Economic Well-Being

Richard Fry, D’Vera Cohn, Gretchen Livingston and Paul Taylor — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:01:36 +0000

Households headed by older adults have made dramatic gains relative to those headed by younger adults in their economic well-being over the past quarter of a century.

The Generation Gap and the 2012 Election

Pew Social Trends Staff — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:28:32 +0000

In the last four national elections, generational differences have mattered more than they have in decades. According to the exit polls, younger people have voted substantially more Democratic than other age groups in each election since 2004, while older voters have cast more ballots for Republican candidates in each election since 2006.

For Millennials, Parenthood Trumps Marriage

Wendy Wang and Paul Taylor — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:00:13 +0000

Today’s 18 to 29 year olds – members of the so-called Millennial Generation – see parenthood and marriage differently than today’s thirty-somethings (members of Generation X) did back when they were in their late teens and twenties, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey findings. Unlike their older counterparts, Millennials value parenthood much more than marriage.

Since the Start of the Great Recession, More Children Raised by Grandparents

Gretchen Livingston and Kim Parker — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:46:25 +0000

One child in 10 in the United States lives with a grandparent, a share that increased slowly and steadily over the past decade before rising sharply from 2007 to 2008, the first year of the Great Recession.

The Return of the Multi-Generational Family Household

Pew Social Trends Staff — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0000

The multi-generational American family household is staging a comeback -- driven in part by the job losses and home foreclosures of recent years, but more so by demographic changes that have been gathering steam for decades.

Interactive: A Portrait of Five Generations

Pew Social Trends Staff — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:15:56 +0000

In 2008, a record 14.6% of all new marriages in the United States were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another. Rates varied by region, by state and racial group.