What is a multi-generational household? It’s when Abuela lives upstairs and helps

What is a multi-generational household? It’s when Abuela lives upstairs and helps take care of the kids, or when your parents take your unemployed brother back in, or any combination involving two or more adult generations under one roof. Or sometimes it’s a skipped-generation household, with grandparents raising a grandchild.

And these households are on the rise, with Latinos and Asians topping the list of those most likely to do it. That in itself is not a bad thing, as generations living together is a tradition that many immigrant families are at least relatively comfortable with. The reasons behind the spike? Not so comfortable. According to a report from the Pew Research Center, the growth in the number of multi-generational U.S. households in recent years coincides with the Great Recession.

As people tightened their belts and coped with layoffs and foreclosures, the number of Americans living in multi-generational households grew more than five times as sharply as the overall population increased between 2007 to 2009, the years that spanned the Great Recession (which officially ended in 2009, though one wouldn’t know it). The biggest jump was among adults ages 25 to 34 who live with their parents, according to the report.

A record 51.4 million Americans lived in a multi-generational household in 2009. Of those, 23 percent were Latino, the group that saw the biggest jump in multi-generational living (up 17.6 percent in just two years), not surprising as Latinos were group the hardest hit by the recession. Another 26 percent were Asian. From the report:

From 2007 to 2009, the sharpest growth in the multi-generational household population was among Hispanics (17.6%) and Americans of two or more races (24.4%).

The black population in these households grew by 8.7% from 2007 to 2009, the non-Hispanic white population by 8.5% and the Asian population by 7.3%.

In all cases, this growth was more rapid than the overall population increase during this period, which was 6.5% for Hispanics, 14.7% for mixed-race Americans (that is, of two or more races), 1.5% for blacks, 0.4% for whites and 3.8% for Asians.

Who are the Latino and Asian Americans living in multi-generational households? According to the report, many are likely to be foreign-born. The report goes on:

Foreign-born Americans are more likely than native-born Americans to live in a multi-generational household, and from 2007 to 2009 their numbers in these households grew more rapidly.

In this section, analysis is based on the birthplace of the head of the household, which offers a clearer picture than using the total household population because many homes include both immigrants and native-born (that is, U.S.-born) residents (for example, foreign-born parents and U.S.-born children).

In 2009, 16.2% of foreign-born heads of household and 9.6% of native-born heads of household lived in a multi-generational household. From 2007 to 2009, the number of foreign-born heads of households living in multi-generational households grew 10.5%, compared with 7.7% growth among U.S.-born heads of households.

Among both foreign-born and native-born heads of households, the most popular type of multi-generational household is the two-generation home of parent and grown child.

Last year, when Pew released an earlier report on multi-generational households, blogger Jeff of 8Asians posted this take, some of it based on his personal experience:

Immigrants, particularly from Latin American and Asia, who are from cultures where extended families are not unusual, are cited as one reason for the increase. I have written about my brother-in-law who lives with my family and occasionally makes our furniture disappear (interestingly, that arrangement does not meet the study’s definition of multi-generational).

Before my brother-in-law, the Wife’s parents lived with us. When The Wife and I got married, my mother invited us to live with them (not so unusual for Filipinos), but The Wife didn’t think so highly of that idea, to put it mildly. Often a multi-generational household happens because of the need to care for elderly parents. Indeed, the study points to data that says that older people living with others are generally healthier and happier than those living alone.

Which leads us back to Abuela living upstairs, both of you taking in your unemployed brother, and everyone making the best of it. Times are tight, but things could be worse.

http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2011/10/the-multi-generational-household-is-back-led-by-asian-and-latino-homes/