2025
Remote working moms spend more time with kids
The share moms who are working full-time has been increasing for decades. And in recent years, many moms are choosing to work remotely. An IFS study found that moms who work remotely spend on average 2.4 more hours per day with their young children compared to moms who work full-time in-person. This compares to the 4.6 additional hours part-time working moms spend with their kids, and 6.3 additional hours stay-at-home moms spend with their young children per day, compared to full-time moms working in-person. For many, remote work means more time with kids, and maybe even more kids overall.
Americans prefer single-family homes
For young adults, homeownership has been falling for the last few decades. Do Americans simply prefer to live in apartments now? It doesn’t look like it. A 2024 IFS survey found that while 24% of adults under the age of 55 live in an apartment, only 8% consider an apartment ideal. The vast majority, 79%, prefer a detached single-family home. Yet just 59% live in one. This disparity is due, in large part, to a growing home affordability crisis. With home ownership being a major priority for aspiring parents, a pro-family policy agenda must include easier access to single-family homes.
Young adults are spending less time with friends
In post-pandemic America, young adults are spending a record amount of time alone. But even before the pandemic, young adults began spending less time with friends. In 2010, young adults ages 18 to 29 on average spent 12.8 hours a week with friends. By 2019, that number nearly halved, falling to 6.5 hours a week. The pandemic exacerbated this trend with a low point of 4.2 hours a week with friends in 2020. And while we’ve seen a slight increase since, socializing has not nearly recovered. Today, young adults spend just 5 hours a week with friends. Lingering effects of pandemic-era isolation are certainly at play, but the role of technology cannot be ignored.
Ratio of working-age adults to seniors is falling
An aging population brings new challenges to the economy. In the U.S., the number of working-age adults relative to the retirement age population, called the old-age dependency ratio, is shrinking. In 1950, there were 7.5 working-age adults for every adult age 65 and over. In 2024, there were just 3.4 working-age adults for every senior. Census projections expect that the U.S. will have less than two working-age adults for every senior by 2100. With so many government programs fiscally dependent on a sizeable working population, low birth rates could spell trouble for the economy.
Republican counties have higher birth rates
Partisanship runs deep these days. But it’s not just ideas that divide the country. Increasingly, family formation is becoming a wedge between Left and Right. Following the 2024 election, Lyman Stone and I found that Republican-leaning counties are having more children than Democratic counties, and the gap is growing. The top 20% most Republican counties had a total fertility rate of 1.76, compared to the most Democratic counties which had a total fertility rate of just 1.37 children per woman. If these trends hold, we may see the family divide become even further entrenched in American politics.
Homeownership is declining among young adults
You cannot think of the American Dream without homeownership coming to mind. But for the rising generation, homeownership is becoming out of reach. Since 1970, homeownership rates among young adults have declined about 40%, from half of young adults owning the home they live in, to less than a third in 2023. This comes at the same time as a growing housing affordability crisis in America. While just 1% of housing markets were seriously unaffordable in 1969 (where the median home was worth ten times or more a young adult’s median annual income), now 37% of housing markets are. And it’s not just big city metros that are pricing out America’s youth. In 1969, the nationwide median price for a home was about five years of income for the typical young adult. Today, it’s nearly nine years of income. Lyman Stone prescribes the antidote: build more family-friendly homes.
Decades-long trend reverses for children with married parents
More children are growing up with married parents than they were ten years ago. For many, this news comes as a surprise. Between 1970 and 2012, the share of children growing up with married parents fell dramatically from 85% to 64%. This has led many to think that marriage is on its way out for good. But the story has since changed. Between 2012 and 2024, the share of kids living with married parents rose two percentage points from 64% to 66%. Although this small increase pales in comparison to the multi-decade decline that preceded it, it signifies a key reversal in the fortunes of American families. For kids, at least, family is trending up.
Gen Z is not interested in AI romance
Gen Z, a generation of digital natives, has a tech-skeptic bent to it. This is especially true when it comes to AI chatbots. A 2024 IFS survey found that three-quarters of Gen Z adults were opposed to or uncomfortable with AI romantic companions; a fifth reported having mixed feelings or were unsure; and just 7% said they were open. It comes as no surprise that young Americans generally support regulating the companies that push for AI romance. Gen Z may be a first adopter of this burgeoning technology, but it doubles as a staunch critic.
Sexual history correlates with marital happiness
What’s the ideal number of lifetime sexual partners? Conventional wisdom tells young adults that sexual experience is necessary for a happy marriage. But the data tells a different story. It turns out that those who have fewer sexual partners prior to marriage tend to have happier marriages. Married men and women report the highest levels of marital satisfaction when they’ve only had one sexual partner in their lifetime: their spouse. As the number of partners increases, the odds of being “very happy” in marriage, on average, decreases. And as research from the Wheatley Institute shows, this holds true whether previous partners were from casual hookups or serious relationships. Other research suggests that divorce risk rises with the number of premarital sexual partners. When it comes to marital happiness, one partner is the ideal number.
