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Study: Delayed transitions of young adults

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The Daily


Tuesday, September 18, 2007
1971 to 2001

Young adults were taking longer to make key life transitions to adulthood in 2001 than their counterparts were three decades earlier, according to a new study.

The study, published today in Canadian Social Trends, used census data from 1971 and 2001 to show how transitions have changed for individuals aged 18 to 34. (The study includes people in their early 30s in order to allow sufficient time to complete the transition to adulthood.)

It found that overall, the transition to adulthood in 2001 was delayed and elongated compared with that in 1971. It took young adults longer to achieve their independence. They were leaving school later, staying longer in their parents' home, entering the labour market later, and postponing conjugal unions and childbearing.

Young women in 2001 were generally making life transitions earlier than young men, as was the situation in 1971. However, women in 2001 were often making different transitions at different times than young women did 30 years earlier.

The study examined five transitions that many young people make on their way to adulthood: leaving school, leaving their parents' home, having full-year, full-time work, entering into conjugal relationships, and having children.

In each generation, women were in general more likely than men to leave home, marry and have children at a younger age. Men in both generations generally left school earlier and had full-year, full-time employment at a younger age than women.

Transitions delayed, spread over longer period

On average, a 25-year-old in 2001 had gone through the same number of transitions as a 22-year-old in 1971. A 30-year-old in the later generation averaged the same number of transitions as a 25-year-old in the earlier generation.

In recent years, both young men and women have delayed many transitions. For example, in 2001, half of all 22-year-olds were still in school. Only 1 in 5 was in a conjugal union (usually common law), and 1 in 11 had children.

In contrast, in 1971, three-quarters of young adults at the age of 22 had left school. Nearly half were married and 1 in 4 had children.

As well, for the 2001 cohort, the time between transitions had increased, stretching the process from the late teens to the early 30s. The 1971 cohort, by comparison, packed more life transitions into the years from their late teens to mid-20s and fewer transitions into their early 30s.

Women made different transitions, men made fewer

By the time they were 34, men in 2001 had not made as many transitions as their counterparts 30 years earlier. However, women who were 34 in 2001 had made as many transitions as 34-year-old women in 1971. But those transitions for women were more likely to include full-year, full-time work and less likely to include marriage and childbearing.

In 1971, 9% of 18- to 34-year-old mothers of pre-school children worked full-year full-time, compared with 27% in 2001. Mothers in 2001 with older children also experienced increases in full-year, full-time employment.

Perhaps the most pronounced difference between the generations, particularly for women, was the change in educational attainment. The percentage of young women aged 30 to 34 who were university-educated increased fourfold, from 7% in 1971 to 29% in 2001.

The proportion for young men who were university-educated doubled over the same period, from 13% in 1971 to 25% in 2001. The 2001 generation was also much more likely to go on to master's and doctoral programs.

This shift in priorities helps to explain the delay in conjugal unions and parenthood for the 2001 generation, although even those who had not gone beyond high school graduation had delayed childrearing.

Men leaving home later, living alone longer

Young adults in 2001, and men in particular, were taking longer to leave their parents' home. In 2001, 60% of men and 73% of women aged 25 were no longer living with their parents, compared with 78% of men and 89% of women aged 25 in 1971.

Once they had moved out, the young adults in the later generation were also more likely to live alone. This was especially true for young men: the rate peaked at 13% at age 28 and remained fairly close to that peak until age 34.

In contrast, the rate for young women living alone peaked at 9% at age 27 and then decreased. This suggests that, compared with the past, more young men had developed a single lifestyle that lasted well into their 30s.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3901.

The study, "Delayed transitions of young adults", is now available in the September 2007 issue of Canadian Social Trends, no. 84 (11-008-XWE, free) from the Publications module of our website.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (613-951-5979; sasd-dssea@statcan.gc.ca), Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division.