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Living with or Apart from Parents? A Comparative Study of Young Adults’ Living Arrangements in China and South Korea

Soo-Yeon Yoon, Sonoma State University
Bin Lian, East China University of Science and Technology

This study examines recent trends in living arrangements of never-married urban young adults in China and South Korea from 2003 to 2018. Using data from the Chinese (CGSS) and Korean General Social Surveys (KGSS), we investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status and young adult’s living arrangements. Our findings show that the percentages of living with parents continued to decrease in both China and South Korea since the early-2000s but showed a resurgence of living with parents during the 2010s with different timing. Gender and education showed no significant association with young adults’ living arrangements in both countries. Findings from binary logit models show that employed young adults were more likely to live apart from parents than those unemployed, suggesting the importance of economic security on independent living in both countries. Father’s educational attainment is important for Korean young adults’ living arrangements, but not so for Chinese young adults. Chinese rural to urban migrants were more likely to live apart from their parents. This suggests an urban-rural divide influencing Chinese young adults’ living arrangements.

Keywords: Intergenerational relations, Cross-country comparative analyses, Family demography, Life course analysis

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session 101. Living Arrangements in a Global Perspective