Young Adults in US – There were 31.2 million young adults ages 18–2

Demographics

• As of 2012, there were 31.2 million young adults ages 18–24 living in the United States.
• About 522,000 young adults were serving on active duty in the armed forces in 2012.
• Just over 180,000 young adults were imprisoned in State correctional institutions in 2011.

Education

• In 2013, 84 percent of young adult women and 81 percent of young adult men had completed at least a high school education. These percentages were up from 79 and 75 percent, respectively, in 1980.
• The overall college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds increased from 26 percent in 1980 to 41 percent in 2012.
• In 2011–12, about 68 percent of young adult undergraduates in their fourth year of college or above had received federal loans, non-federal loans, or Parent Loans for Undergraduates (PLUS, received by parents), compared with 50 percent in 1989–90.
• The mean cumulative debt per fourth-year student in 2011–12 was $25,400, up from $14,700 in 1989–90.
• A higher percentage of young adults ages 20–24 was neither enrolled in school nor working in 2013 (19 percent) than in 1990 (17 percent). This percentage also increased for young adults at various levels of educational attainment.

Economic Circumstances

• The labor force participation rate for young adults was 65 percent in 2012, compared with the peak rate of 75 percent in 1986.
• Median annual earnings (in constant 2012 dollars) for young adults ages 20–24 not enrolled in school were lower in 2012 than they were in 2000 for all levels of education.
• Of the 2 million households headed by a young adult on his or her own in 2011, 42 percent experienced severe cost burdens (housing costs that exceeded 50 percent of income).
• In 2012, 58 percent of young adults had current private health insurance and 15 percent had Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program or another state program. Twenty-five percent were uninsured.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Childstats.gov – America’s Young Adults: Special Issue, 2014 – Behavior.