9 ms·
The Typical American Lives Only 18 Miles from Mom
- NDizzle 11y agoI'm 2000 miles from my Mom, yet here I am with my three kids & wife for Christmas. Happy holidays everyone!
- vowelless 11y agoMerry Christmas to you and your family.
- almost_usual 11y agoThis thought consumes me a lot. Being an only child who has a mother that is 3,000 miles away and a father that is 2,000 miles away.
- theomega 11y agoDoes anyone have comparable numbers for other countries?
- theomega 11y agoGerman study on european countries: http://www.comparativepopulationstudies.de/index.php/CPoS/article/download/44/130 http://www.comparativepopulationstudies.de/index.php/CPoS/ar... No need to understand German: Scroll to page 14 (of PDF). For Germany about 42% of the adult children live either at their parents ("Koresidenz") or within 5km of their parents. European average is 45%.
- chestnut-tree 11y agoRelated, but not quite the same thing: Europe's young adults living with parents - a country by country breakdown (2011) http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/mar/24/young-adults-still-living-with-parents-europe-country-breakdown http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/mar/24/young-a...
- sholanozie 11y agoI shudder when I think about the strain that will be placed on millenials when we inevitably become our parents' safety net. It's a perfect storm: a housing bubble that will pop when everyone tries to sell their house at the same time, unreliable pensions, non-existant retirement savings, high levels of undischargable student debt, and dwindling job prospects for young people. It's not going to be pretty.
- cmarschner 11y agoyour statement implies a conflict-ladden connection with your parents. Family can also mean: safety net, love, time. My wife's family comes from a mid-sized town where grandmothers, aunts and cousins live in vicinity. This means houses where built without any loan from a bank and parents could go to work with their children being watched and cared for when they were sick. On Christmas eve family gathers at a large table and there is more food than anyone can eat. We are the only ones who live abroad and need to spend a good chunk of money to buy the services we would get from a family for free. Sometimes I think we should de-economize our lives.
- sholanozie 11y agoI agree with your conclusion, but disagree with your suggestion that you have any insight into my relationship with my parents. I also advocate a shift back to "family-orienting" living, and live my life accordingly. I'm just looking at big picture trends and simple demographics.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tw04 11y agoThat seems like a pretty gross overgeneralization. An entire generation that hasn't saved any money for retirement? Seriously? I guess I can count almost every one of my family members as "unique" then. I can think of only 1 of them I would expect to be in financial trouble post retirement.
- 11y ago
- bkjelden 11y agoThis is surprising to me. I would guess that close to 50% of my friends and acquaintances are in the top 5%, and the overwhelming majority are 70-75% percentile or higher. I guess that just goes to show you how skewed from the averages the set of people you know and interact with can be.
- cm2012 11y agoOn this note, some stats for perspective: 1) 30% of Americans have a college degree of any kind (inc. associates, etc.) 2) Median household income is $50k yearly nationwide. It's $50k in NYC and $70k in SF. 3) Median single person income is $32k nationwide.
- stygiansonic 11y agoI guess this should not be too surprising. People of the same socioeconomic group tend to associate with each other, because of work, similar interests, etc. This is basically a clustering effect. In terms of living distance from parents, if you live in an area where people tend to flock to (because that's where the jobs are, or other reasons), then it's further likely your friends will be in the same boat as you. More reasons why anecdotes don't necessarily match the overall population statistics. * Note: Massive generalizations in my above statements.
- jczhang 11y agoAnd of course it's not surprising among people who post on Hacker News that they would be among the top 5%. It's just that having friends only in your socioeconomic level will put you in a bubble regardless of how much reading you do about the poverty of others. The level of empathy for others can really only exist if you have personal connections.
- bkjelden 11y agoYea, when I think about it some more, it makes sense. But it is interesting how much of a bubble you can live in without really realizing it. Although the 25 miles in the Great Plains states shown in the article is still surprising to me. As anyone who's lived in those states will attest, 25 miles is nothing.
- jtheory 11y agoI married my college gf, whose parents live more than 9K miles from mine. This does indeed complicate life now that we have children, and as both sets of parents age.
- JustSomeNobody 11y agoIt's really sad that it is such a stigma in this country for the family to stick together. One can be successful AND BE PART of a loving, nurturing, close family.
- Jtsummers 11y agoThe problem is not being near family. It's being near family and working in the fields that we want, or for pay that can support our own families the way we want to. I couldn't get a job paying better than $60k a year in the town my parents live in as a programmer. And there are so few I'd be lucky to get even that.
- furfish 11y agoIt was the same for me. Where I'm from I'd have been very lucky to have made the equivalent of 20k USD per year as a programmer and there were/are very few positions available.
- thescriptkiddie 11y agoThere isn't exactly a stigma regarding living in close proximity to your family. The thing is that previous generations fled the cities for the suburbs (partly because of racism), and since then we've realized suburbs are awful places and people are starting to move back. Most people's parents live in the suburbs, so if you want to live in a city you can't live nearby.
- douche 11y agoManufacturing also died, so the lower-middle class jobs that were in industry on the outskirts of the cities (that became the suburbs) are gone or going. I'd love to go back to the rural area I grew up in - it's a much better quality of life, stuff is half or one-quarter of the price they are in an urban area, and there's 1/100th of the population. But there's almost literally no employment opportunities. The one major paper mill in the area is folding, and there's going to be an exodus as the hundreds of people people that work there, and the thousands in the supporting industries, get laid off (not to mention further downstream effects, like school teachers or healthcare workers that become redundant as population crashes). There's nothing that's going to fill that void.
- salmonet 11y agoThis isn't very surprising to me. 18 miles away on average is probably significantly farther away than the rest of the world
- desireco42 11y agoNot that much different from Serbians :) who would have thought.
- rokhayakebe 11y agoI would like to see data on living close to your entire family and longevity, depression, "happiness."
- Shivetya 11y agoI guess I am typical now, I used to be a state or two away but I am within that limit expressed in the article now. My siblings are on the other side of the country. What I find more interesting is how many people don't move far from where they are born and even more who never travel outside of their state.
- Kinnard 11y agoI think this is terribly, painfully ironic. It's arguing that Americans are living closer to home in order to support their aging elders. 18 Miles is not close!!! That's a commute. You have to commute to see your mother, or for her to see her grandchildren. I haven't traveled far and wide. But based on the few places I have been this is bizarre and unhealthy. In West Africa, parents either live with you or a few doors down. A few miles away at most, always within walking distance. I think this is the broad case across the planet and in human history. I also think it's way healthier.
- altern8 11y agoA tipical Italian lives in the other room :-/