Charlotte Urban Institute Reports More Millennials Living Alone
Despite higher housing costs, more adults in Mecklenburg County are living on their own.
Over the past eight years, Mecklenburg County has seen a decrease in the number of adults living with non-relatives (presumably roommates), and an increase of adults living alone, or with their own children. Fewer adults are doubling-up.
In 2022, about one in five adults lived on their own. This is a slight increase from 2015, when 16% of adults lived on their own. Yet, even a slight change, combined with population growth, represents an increase of about 40,000 households countywide.
Household size and formation have tremendous implications for housing demand – more, and smaller, households require more housing units. The age and lifestyle of householders also factor into which types of housing get built where. Here, we can see exactly who is living in the thousands of apartments built in Charlotte over the last few years.
Living arrangements often change as people age, both in response to changes in housing affordability and in lifestyle. The prevailing narrative is that most people living alone are older adults – widows or empty nesters. Yet, in Mecklenburg County, the move toward single-adult households is driven by adults aged 18-34.
n both 2015 and 2022, the young adult category (ages 18-35) largely captures the millennial demographic, those born between 1980 and1997. The change in living arrangements here might simply reflect the aging and changing preferences of this population. In 2015, most millennials were in their 20s while, by 2022, the majority were in their 30s. While the proportion of partnered (married or unmarried) households remained about the same, there was a six percent increase in the percentage of young adults living alone, offset by a 5% decrease in young adults living with roommates.
It appears that high housing costs have not deterred younger adults from living alone. However, the percentage of renter households who are cost-burdened, that is spending more than 30% of their income on rent, increased from 47% in 2015 to 51% in 2022.
With all of this, you might be curious to know which demographics are living with others? Here’s what we know: