Much has been written about millennials and the rough time
they’ve had in the economy. But now that the generation is getting older, and
the oldest millennials are in their mid-30s by some definitions, an increasing
number are parents themselves. A new report from Konrad Mugglestone, a
policy analyst at Young Invincibles, a Washington-based group
that represents the interests of young Americans, has dived into the data
on millennial parents.
The biggest challenge has been the damaged economy. The weak
economy itself is no surprise, but what’s surprising is that this postrecession
period has been especially hard on young parents. Young parents have always
been somewhat more likely than nonparents to be in poverty. This has especially
been the case in recent years, with close to one-quarter of young parents in
poverty. Since 2009, the share of impoverished young people has been higher
than at any other point in the past 25 years. Since 2009, 16% of young people
without children were in poverty, up 5 percentage points from the late 1990s.
As many as 23% of young parents were in poverty, however, an 8 percentage point
increase.
But there’s good news, too, about young parents. Today’s
youngest mothers and fathers are better educated than parents 10 and 20 years
ago. The economy has placed increasing value on education over recent decades.
If the economy continues to improve, these parents may prove well positioned to
provide for their children.
In 1995, 18% of young parents were high school dropouts and
39% received no schooling beyond high school. Today, only 13% of parents are
dropouts and just 30% stopped at high school. In 1995, 43% of parents had at
least some college. Today, 56% do.
The education of all millennials has been rising, but it’s
been rising faster for parents. Nonparents are 3 percentage points less likely
to be high school dropouts than in 1995, compared with 5 percentage points less
likely for parents. Nonparents are 3 percentage points less likely to have
stopped at high school than in 1995, compared with 9 percentage points for
parents.
Parents are 5 percentage points more likely to have a
bachelor’s degree than they were in 1995, compared with just 2% for nonparents.
And when it comes to advanced degrees,
today’s parents are running away with the race. In 1995, 4% of nonparents and
3% of parents had advanced degrees–such as master’s degrees, law degrees,
medical degrees and PhDs. Today, 6% of nonparents have advanced degrees,
compared with 8% of parents.
While many millennials and their young families have had a
rough start in today’s economy, the report suggests that going forward, this
generation of parents may do especially well.
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here to access the full article on The Wall Street Journal.