By Douglas LaBier November 20, 2018
Change is inevitable and relentless. But when it occurs in ways that disrupt your sense of “what’s always been,” it can be hard to embrace it and “evolve” with it. We see evidence of that in the political and social attitudes of some segments of our society.
Some new demographic data from the Pew Research Center shows another emerging shift emerging, today: They are the attitudes, behavior and lifestyle of the “post-millennials,” which will alter the fabric of the United States in many ways.
They include:
- Nearly half of post-Millennials are racial or ethnic minorities.
- More post-Millennials are pursuing college.
- Post-Millennials are more likely than Millennials to live with a college-educated parent.
The report states that this emerging generation is already the most racially and ethnically diverse,, as a bare majority of 6- to 21-year-olds (52%) are non-Hispanic whites. And while most are still pursuing their K-12 education, the oldest post-Millennials are enrolling in college at a significantly higher rate than Millennials were at a comparable age. Moreover, the parents of post-Millennials are more well educated than the parents of Millennials and those of previous generations, and this pattern most likely contributes to the relative affluence of the households in which post-Millennials live.
Other key findings:
- The oldest post-Millennials are less likely than their predecessors to be in the labor force. Only 58% of today’s 18- to 21-year-olds worked in the prior calendar year; this compares with 72% of Millennial 18- to 21-year-olds in 2002. And employment among post-Millennials is less likely to be full-time compared with earlier generations.
- The living arrangements of post-Millennial children are similar to those of Millennials when they were growing up. About two-thirds (65%) of today’s 6- to 17-year-olds live with two married parents, slightly lower than the share (68%) of Millennials in that age range who lived in this type of household in 2002.
- The median household income of post-Millennials exceeds that of earlier generations when they were young. The typical post-Millennial in 2018 lives in a household with an annual income of roughly $63,700 after adjusting for household size. That is slightly higher than the income for the typical household in which Millennials grew up.
For the full report, click here.
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