Young adults at home, work and school

Millions of post-secondary students will be heading to university or college in the weeks ahead. For some students, it will be their first foray into independent living away from the family nest. For many others, however, they will be hitting the books while living at their parental home.

For young adults pursuing post-secondary studies, living in the parental home can offer considerable cost savings when feasible. In 2021, nearly half (47.5%) of Canadians aged 20 to 34 years who were attending school lived with their parents in an intergenerational household. In the census, students who return to live with their parents during the year (for any duration) are instructed to be enumerated at their parents’ address.

While the likelihood of attending school decreases with age, among young adults aged 20 to 34 years, the share of those attending school was higher among those living with their parents than among those living in other arrangements. 

This difference was most pronounced among persons aged 20 to 24 years, with 58.0% of those living with their parents in an intergenerational household attending school compared with 44.4% of those in other living arrangements.

Price is undoubtedly a contributing factor in why so many post-secondary students live at home while studying. Indeed, attending a post-secondary institution is an expensive proposition, with annual tuition fees for undergraduate degrees averaging $7,734 during the 2025/2026 academic year for Canadian students. These tuition fees ranged from under $4,000 a year in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec to almost $10,000 a year in New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

Making monthly rent is even more expensive than tuition. In the first quarter of 2026, the average asking price for a one-bedroom apartment in a census metropolitan area was $1,740 a month, with average rent topping over $2,100 a month in Toronto and Vancouver. Even if you were to live with a roommate in a two-bedroom apartment, you would still be averaging over $1,000 a month in rent payments nationally.

So far, the summer job market has been more favourable for students in 2026 than it was at the same point in 2025. For returning students aged 20 to 24—those most likely to be in post-secondary education—the unemployment rate was 6.3% in July, the lowest rate for this group since July 2018.

Many post-secondary students find work in lower-paying, entry-level jobs such as accommodation and food services or wholesale and retail trade. In 2025, the average hourly wage in accommodation and food services was $20.98, while it was $27.59 in wholesale and retail trade. Both figures were below the average hourly wage across all industries, which stood at $36.40.