Young American adults are more educated, multilingual, and diverse today than three decades ago, according to the results of a Census Bureau study published Thursday. And they’re more likely to be destitute.
About one in five young adults, or 13.5 million people aged 18-34–the so-called millennial generation–are living in poverty, the report found. In 1980, one in seven young adults from the Baby Boomer generation were living below the poverty line.
This trend has occurred despite the fact that millennials aren’t much less likely to be employed, are more likely to have finished college, and are in shorter supply than their predecessors. The share of young adults with jobs has only gone down in recent years to 65 percent, from 69 percent in 1980. While only 16 percent of young baby boomers had a college degree, 22 percent of millennials have one. And young adults have declined as a share of the overall population over the past three decades, to 23 percent from 30 percent.
Millennials are also more likely to be proficient in a foreign tongue. The report said that about 25 percent speak a language at home other than English. While it did not keep track of the same data for young adults in 1980, the Census Bureau said that the number of second-language English speakers has increased. The trend is likely driven by the fact that young adults today are more likely to have immigrated to the United States. Fifteen percent of millennials were born in foreign countries—up from 6 percent in 1980.
“Many of the differences between generations examined within these latest data reflect long-term demographic and societal changes,” explained Census demographer Jonathan Vespa.
The long-term trend toward higher qualifications and poverty might be causing young adults to call on the country to rethink the way it approaches economics. In December 2011, three years after the catastrophic Wall Street collapse, 49 percent of Americans aged 19-28 reacted positively to the term “socialism”–up from 43 percent in May 2010.
