Five Key Statistics for Understanding Millennial Households

"Millennials are the largest living generation by population size (79.8 million in 2016), but they trail Baby Boomers and Generation Xers when it comes to the number of households they head," according to an article by Richard Fry.

The article lists five facts about Millennials, each of which paint mostly a dire picture for the position of the Millennial generation relative to older generations. The five facts read as follows, with more detail to back each up in the article:

1. More households headed by a Millennial are in Poverty than other generations.
2. Millennial households dominate the ranks of the nation's renters. 
3. About half of cohabiting-couple households are headed by a Millennial.
4. In 2016, Millennials for the first time surpassed all other generations in number of household heads who were single mothers.
5. Among heads of household, Millennials in 2016 became the generation with the largest number identifying as multiracial.

There is frequently pushback against articles that take statistics like these and speculate or generalize about Millennials. We saw responses like that when we last posted about Millennial housing trends. Fry's article, however, steers clear of speculation and presents the data of what is known about this generation at the macro level.