Failure to launch: Cross-national trends in the transition to economic independence

We analyze trends in the age of economic independence in six industrialized countries, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The paper compares trends in the household living arrangements, employment rates, earnings levels, and net incomes as young adults rise in age from 18 to 34 years old. Our results show a picture of generally declining independent living and economic self-sufficiency ('failure to launch') among 18-34 year-old men and women in their early 20s from the mid-1980s to 1995-2000. The exceptions are women in their late 20s and early 30s , wh... Mehr ...