Fewer young adults are achieving economic and family milestones typically associated with adulthood, according to a recent working paper from the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the working paper, “Changes in Milestones of Adulthood,” almost half of all young adults in 1975 had reached four milestones associated with adulthood: moving out of one’s parents’ home, getting a job, getting married and having a child.
Five decades on, that progression has changed dramatically. The share of young adults that have followed the traditional pathway to adulthood has dropped to less than a quarter, according to the paper.
Personally I don’t feel that goals and milestones are the same thing.
Agreed. Goal = something that I want to accomplish. Milestone = something that others (e.g. “society”) measure as an accomplishment.
Becoming a parent may be a milestone, but it most definitely isn’t one of my goals.