More millennials opt for stay-at-home parenting compared to Gen X

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published 24 September 2018

Millennials are more likely to be stay-at-home parents than Gen X parents were two decades ago.

Data published Monday by the Pew Research Center shows that in recent years, 21 percent of millennial parents have opted to stay home and take care of children. Millennials are generally classified as people ages 20 to 35. Back in 1999, when Gen X parents were the same age, 17 percent of parents in that group remained at home.

The difference between generations is particularly apparent among fathers — 6 percent of millennial dads were home with their children in 2016, while 3 percent of Gen X dads stayed home when they were about the same age. An increasing number of stay-at-home dads additionally say that they are intentionally opting to care for their children full-time, as opposed to parents who stay home because of difficulty finding employment.

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About 18 percent of U.S. parents overall don't work outside the home, Pew Research found, which is about the same as the share of stay-at-home parents in 1989. The share of stay-at-home moms hit an all-time low of 23 percent in 2000; it has since since climbed back up to 27 percent. Stay-at-home parenting rose to 20 percent in 2010 in the wake of the recession, but analysis suggests that fathers who stay home are increasingly doing so because of changing gender roles, not because of unemployment. See more data at Pew Research Center.

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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.

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