Statistics Shows American Grown-Ups Live Near Their Parents

choi

Quoctrung Bui and Claire Cain Miller, Short Ride to Mom’s House Reveals a Changing America. New York Times, Dec 24, 2015 (front page).
http://www.nytimes.com/interacti ... ot/24up-family.html

Quote:

"The typical adult lives only 18 miles from his or her mother, according to an Upshot analysis of data from a comprehensive survey of older Americans. Over the last few decades, Americans have become less mobile, and most adults – especially those with less education or lower incomes — do not venture far from their hometowns.  The data reveal a country of close-knit families, with members of multiple generations leaning on one another for financial and practical support.

"The United States offers less government help for caregiving than many other rich countries. Instead, extended families are providing it, whether they never moved apart, or moved back closer when the need arose.

"only 20 percent [see the bar chart, which is not found in print] live more than a couple hours’ drive from their parents. (Researchers often study the distance from mothers because they are more likely to be caregivers and to live longer than men.)

"The biggest determinants of how far people venture from home are education and income. Those with college and professional degrees are much more likely to live farther from their parents than those with a high school education, in part because they have more job opportunities in big cities, and especially if spouses are juggling the career aspirations of two professionals.  Wealthier people can afford to pay for services like child and elder care, while low-income families are more likely to rely on nearby relatives.

"Married people live farther from their parents than singles, and women ['who have typically been the nation’s unpaid caregivers'] are slightly likelier than men to leave their hometowns. Blacks are more likely to live near their parents than whites, while Latinos are no more likely [than whites] to live near their parents, according to data from Janice Compton, an economist at the University of Manitoba, and Mr [Robert A] Pollak[, an economist at Washington University’s Olin Business School in St Louis].

"Economists * * * see family caregiving dynamics during adulthood as a series of trade-offs and payments — of either time or money. Grandparents help care for grandchildren; their own children will help care for them later. * * * Grown children are the single greatest source of care for the elderly in the United States, according to AARP. * * * Americans are much more likely to say that elder care is a family’s personal responsibility, not a governmental one.

"a Pew Research Center survey * * * found that with the exception of college or military service, 37 percent of Americans had never lived outside their hometown, and 57 percent had never left their state.

Note:
(a) quotation 1: The "Upshot" means a unit of NYT, as well as its publication at page A3 of the newspaper.
(b) quotation 3:

couple (n): "an indefinite small number : FEW <a couple of days ago>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/couple

(c)
(i) The Polish, Czech, and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname Polak (with variants such as Pollack, Pollak): "someone from Poland. * * * The name of the country (Polish[:] Polska) derives from a Slavic element pole ‘open country,'  ‘cleared land.' This surname is found throughout central and eastern Europe."
(ii) The Polish surname Polanski (as in the director Roman Polanski) also means "someone from Poland."

Both items are from Dictionary of American Family Names, by Oxford University Press.

(d) "This year, after she [Kathy Kenyon, 63, a health care lawyer at Washington DC] and her husband retired, they moved with her parents to their vacation home in Red Lodge, Mont., where they live together and also employ professional caregivers.

Red Lodge, Montana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lodge,_Montana
(a city of 2,125 at [sic] the 2010 census; 1851, the United States government signed a treaty with the Crow Nation, ceding the area which now contains Red Lodge to the Crow Indians)
(e) " it is a testament to the American family that the safety net for many of them are relatives. But as baby boomers age, and as more women work and couples have fewer children, that net figures to become increasingly strained."

figure (v): "to appear likely <figures to win>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/figure