The house
How many Long Island adults still live with a parent?
About 322,000 people ages 18 to 34 in Nassau and Suffolk still live in a parent’s house — more than half of that age group. Nationwide, the same arrangement is closer to one in three.
Updated 2026-09-15 · Pipedeck
| Stay in a parent’s house | Move out | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is | Ages 18 to 34, listed as the child of the house | The person packing this weekend |
| What you pay | No second rent; you still share the tax bill | A first lease, plus a truck |
| Next guide | Why the house costs more years of pay | The moving page |
The 322,000 this page is about
If you type how many Long Island adults live with their parents, the useful answer is a headcount, not a vibe. In the Census table Newsday printed in 2023, 322,398 people ages 18 to 34 in Nassau and Suffolk were living in a parent’s house. That was 56 percent of the age group. A one-year Census refresh landed at about 321,726 people, 55.4 percent. The island did not suddenly empty the back bedrooms.
The count is narrow on purpose. You are in it if you are 18 to 34 and the Census lists you as the child of the person who heads the house in Nassau or Suffolk. A weekend visit does not put you there. A bedroom that is still yours does.
Nationwide, the same living arrangement sat at 31.8 percent next to that 2023 print, and in a 32-to-34 percent band on the later update. Long Island has sat about 23 to 26 points above the country for years. Nassau and Suffolk are both in the mid-50s. Neither county is running the U.S. average.
The rest of the country also saw more young adults stay home than in 1960. A national survey of 18-to-34-year-olds living with a parent went from about 22 percent then to about 32 percent in 2024. That climb is real. It is also much smaller than the island’s gap. The country moved about ten points over those decades. This island sits in the mid-50s. Both facts can be true at once. They come from different surveys, so they sit next to each other rather than on one line.
Nassau’s share is higher. Suffolk’s headcount is larger.
People talk about Long Island as one housing market. The stay-at-home count is not one percent. Nassau’s 155,048 people were 58.4 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds in that county on the 2023 print. Suffolk’s 167,350 people were 54.0 percent. Suffolk has more bodies in the picture because it is a larger county. Nassau has the higher rate.
If you add 58 and 54 and divide by two, you do not get the island figure. Fifty-six percent is people over people: the two counties’ adult children, divided by the two counties’ 18-to-34-year-olds. Averaging two percents pretends the counties are the same size. They are not.
A Nassau kitchen and a Suffolk kitchen can argue about who has it harder. Grown kids still living at home in Nassau are not a rounding error. Neither is Suffolk’s 54 percent. Both sit far above the country.
A millennial with a job still sits in this count
Search “millennials still living at home Long Island” and you are asking about this same Census band, in everyday words. Search “30 year old living with parents Long Island” and you are asking whether the late end of 18-to-34 still counts. It does. A 22-year-old, a 29-year-old, and someone who just turned 34 all sit in the same picture.
College does not explain the whole number. School can keep a 19-year-old listed at a parent’s address. Plenty of people in this picture have a job, a car, and the dresser they used in high school. A paycheck does not take you out. The squeeze is the second rent, not the absence of work. If you are 29, employed, and still on your parent’s street, you are in the 322,000. You are not a leftover.
The parent-side search is the same house from the other chair: grown kids still living at home in Nassau, still sharing the kitchen, the driveway, and the tax bill. That is not a listing price. It is a roof with two grown generations under it.
A roommate on a split lease is not this count. A spouse who heads an apartment with you is not this count. The person in this picture is listed as the child of the householder. That is a childhood bedroom, not a first lease with a friend from work.
Rent and a first house, not an empty résumé
People stay because a second rent is hard and a first house is out of reach. From 1990 to 2025, house prices in Nassau and Suffolk went up about four times. Pay went up about three. That comparison lives in full on the prices-versus-pay page. You feel it when you look at a one-bedroom listing and then look at the bedroom you already have.
Childcare for a baby here can run more than twenty thousand a year. School taxes on the house you grew up in already sit near eleven thousand, about four times a typical U.S. property-tax bill. Two cars in the driveway is normal on this island. Insurance on those cars has jumped in some ZIP codes. The railroad, if that is the commute, is a few hundred a month before anyone has paid a second rent.
About one in three Long Island households is close to the edge after those costs. United Way’s household-budget count rose from about 287,000 households in 2019 to about 355,000 in 2023, with a dip in the relief year in between. That is employed people, still short of a basic budget. It is not a count of adults in a parent’s house. It is why a second rent is hard to start.
People here still say life is good. A Siena poll put excellent or good quality of life around 74 to 75 percent, and also found 77 percent saying affordability got worse. Eighty-one percent of people in their 20s and 30s said they cannot stay. Eight percent thought it was getting more affordable. Forty percent were not optimistic they could remain. A poll is not a Census count. It is how the same house talks at the table: we like it here, and the next generation cannot peel off.
Towns did not all move the same way. Brookhaven carried a large share of Suffolk’s population gain after 2020. The Town of Hempstead carried most of Nassau’s. Oyster Bay, Glen Cove, and Long Beach sat below their 2020 base. Some streets got denser. Some streets froze. Either way, a first house in the town you already know is a stretch. Sharing the ranch is the move a lot of families actually make.
Two grown generations can share one kitchen
Long Island has almost twice as many people 65 and older as it did in 1990. Census and population estimates go from about 324,600 then to about 597,400 in 2025. People 75 and older went from about 126,700 to about 266,900. Nassau’s 65-and-older count is about 287,100. Suffolk’s is about 310,200. People born 1946 to 1964 are 61 to 79 in 2025. The house has to work for them this year.
Those older counts and the 322,000 younger adults can share a roof. They are not the same number. A parent in their seventies and an adult child in their twenties are two different Census pictures. In a lot of Long Island houses they are also the same kitchen.
If that is your house, the next work is usually on the aging page: making the same ranch easier to live in. This page does not shop that aisle. It names the stacked house. Hempstead and Levittown aged first. Babylon, Huntington, and Islip are in it now. If you are in one of those towns, and someone 18 to 34 still has a bedroom here, you already know the arrangement: a parent who wants to stay, an adult child who has not left, and a bathroom built for a younger body.
If the hallway already has boxes
Some people in this count are saving. Some are done waiting. If the decision is already a move, you need a truck, and usually a couple of extra hands for a day. That is true for a Suffolk-to-Suffolk rental and for a move off the island. The moving page is that next step. This page will not walk the booking.
A same-town move still empties a childhood bedroom. Boxes in the hallway. A weekend. Someone to take the other end of the dresser. Leaving Nassau or Suffolk for another county is a longer day and a bigger truck, but the first hour is the same: tape, labels, and getting the furniture off the carpet without wrecking the stairs a parent still uses.
More people move away from Long Island to another U.S. county than move here from one. In a recent island year about 10,900 people left for another county. International arrivals were larger, so the headcount can still rise. Births still outnumber deaths. The stay-at-home story and the leaving story run at the same time. If you are the person packing, the next step is the truck.
Close percents that are not this 322,000
This page uses the Census count of 18-to-34-year-olds living with a parent. Older Long Island surveys asked a different question: who headed a household in their late twenties, including a spouse. That older line ran from about 86 percent in 1970 to about 37 percent in 2016 for 25-to-34-year-olds who were the head of the house or the spouse. A later Census cut that counts only the head of the house, not the spouse, puts Long Island 25-to-34-year-olds around 24 percent in 2024, against about 44 percent in the U.S.
Those are useful histories. They are not this 322,000. They do not add to 100, and the leftover is not “everyone else lives with a parent.” A spouse in the same apartment is not a parent’s house. A roommate is not a parent’s house. Subtracting 24 percent from 100 does not give you the stay-at-home count.
Another older Long Island line tracked 25-to-34-year-olds whose parent headed the house: about 10 percent in 1970, about 44 percent in 2016. That is closer in spirit to today’s stay-at-home count. It is still not the same age band or the same year as the 56 percent figure. Close percents from different questions stay on their own lines.
If you're moving outPrices vs pay
Common questions
How many Long Island adults live with a parent?
About 322,000 people ages 18 to 34. Newsday’s 2023 county print was 322,398. A later one-year Census update was about 321,726. Nassau was about 155,000 people, a little over 58 percent. Suffolk was about 167,000, 54 percent.
What percent of 18-to-34-year-olds on Long Island live with a parent?
About 56 percent on the 2023 print, 55.4 percent on the later one-year update. That combined rate is the two counties’ adult children divided by the two counties’ 18-to-34-year-olds. It is not an average of Nassau’s 58 percent and Suffolk’s 54 percent.
If I average Nassau’s 58 percent and Suffolk’s 54 percent, is that the island figure?
No. Fifty-six percent is the combined rate: add the two counties’ people, then divide by the two counties’ 18-to-34-year-olds. It is not an average of two percents.
Is living with parents more common on Long Island than nationwide?
Yes. More than half of 18-to-34-year-olds here still live with a parent. Nationwide it is closer to one in three. The gap is about 23 to 26 percentage points.
Is Nassau higher than Suffolk for adults living with a parent?
The share is. Nassau was about 155,048 people, 58.4 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds. Suffolk was about 167,350, 54 percent. Suffolk has more people in the count because it is a larger county. Both sit far above the country.
Did Newsday’s 322,398 table change in 2024?
Only by a wobble. The 2023 print was 322,398 people, 56 percent. A later one-year Census update was about 321,726 people, 55.4 percent. The back bedrooms did not empty.
Are millennials and 30-year-olds in this 322,000?
Yes. The band is ages 18 to 34 listed as the child of the householder. A 22-year-old, a 29-year-old, and someone who just turned 34 all sit in it. A job and a car do not take you out.
Are college students the whole 322,000?
No. School can keep a 19-year-old listed at a parent’s address. The island story is also a late-twenties kitchen: employed adults still in a childhood bedroom.
Does the Census count include roommates or a spouse in their own place?
No. This count is 18-to-34-year-olds listed as the child of the person who heads the house. A roommate splitting rent is not a parent’s house. A spouse who heads an apartment with you is not a parent’s house.
If only about one in four Long Island 25-to-34-year-olds heads a house, do the rest live with a parent?
No. A Census cut that counts only the head of the house, not the spouse, puts Long Island 25-to-34-year-olds around 24 percent in 2024. Subtracting that from 100 does not give you this 322,000. A spouse in the same apartment is not a parent’s house.
Is this the same as older Long Island surveys from the 1970s?
No. Those older lines asked who headed a household in their late twenties, including a spouse. That line ran from about 86 percent in 1970 to about 37 percent in 2016. Another older line tracked 25-to-34-year-olds whose parent headed the house: about 10 percent in 1970, about 44 percent in 2016. Close percents from different questions stay on their own lines.
Is the United Way household-budget number the same as adults living with a parent?
No. That count of Long Island households close to the edge after rent, childcare, and taxes rose from about 287,000 in 2019 to about 355,000 in 2023. It is why a second rent is hard to start. It is not a count of grown kids in a parent’s house.
Do two generations in the same kitchen count as one Census number?
No. About 322,000 people ages 18 to 34 live with a parent. People 65 and older on Long Island went from about 324,600 in 1990 to about 597,400 in 2025. A parent in their seventies and an adult child in their twenties are two different counts. In a lot of houses they are also the same kitchen.
Why do so many adults still live with their parents on Long Island?
Rent and a first house. Prices here rose about four times since 1990. Pay rose about three. Childcare and school taxes sit on top of that. Sharing the house you already have is the usual answer.
What if I cannot afford my own place, so I stay?
You are in the stay this page describes. The prices-versus-pay guide is the backdrop. This page is the shared house, not a listing price.
What if I want to move out of my parents’ house?
You need a truck, and usually a couple of extra hands for a day. That is true for a move across town and for a move off the island. The moving page is that next step.
What if we stay, and a parent is getting older?
Two grown generations can share a kitchen. They are still two Census numbers. Making the ranch easier to live in is the aging page, not this headcount.
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Census figures for 18-to-34-year-olds living with a parent, including Newsday’s 2023 county print and a 2024 one-year update. Older Long Island surveys asked a different question. House prices and pay live on the housing page. Aging counts: Census population estimates, 1990–2025. United Way household-budget counts. Siena quality-of-life polling.