StatCan reveals that younger Canadians are more likely to live with parents and less likely to own detached homes
Canadian millennials are entering the housing market later and buying fewer homes than previous generations did at the same age, according to a new Statistics Canada study that highlights widening generational divides in housing outcomes.
The report found that Canadians aged 25 to 39 in 2021 were far more likely to still live with their parents compared with baby boomers and Generation X cohorts when they were the same age. Millennials were also less likely to own homes, particularly detached houses, despite some signs they eventually “catch up” later in their 30s.
“In 2021, the share of millennials aged 25 to 39 living in a census family with parents (16.3%) was around twice the share of baby boomers of the same age in 1991 (8.2%),” the report said.
After excluding adults living with parents from ownership calculations, millennials posted the lowest adjusted homeownership rate among the three generations examined. The adjusted rate stood at 49.9% for millennials in 2021, compared with 56.2% for Gen-Xers in 2006 and 55.9% for baby boomers in 1991.
The report compared Canadians between ages 25 and 39 across census years 1991, 2006, and 2021 to evaluate how housing outcomes have evolved between generations.
Researchers pointed to several factors behind the shift, including worsening affordability, delayed family formation, longer educational pathways, and demographic changes.
The study found that millennials are forming families later than previous generations, which may also be slowing home purchases. Only 26.6% of millennials aged 25 to 39 were married with children in 2021, down sharply from 46.6% of baby boomers in 1991.
That matters because married couples with children historically recorded the highest homeownership rates.
“It is notable, in this context, that the homeownership rate among those who are in a common-law relationship or marriage has remained relatively stable, or even increased, across the three generations,” the report said.
The data also showed that housing pressures varied significantly by region. Toronto and Vancouver recorded some of the sharpest increases in adults living with parents, alongside major declines in detached homeownership among younger buyers.
In Toronto, 48.6% of millennials aged 25 to 29 lived with parents in 2021, more than double the 21.8% recorded for baby boomers in 1991. Vancouver saw a similar jump, rising from 16.7% to 36.9%.
Detached homeownership also dropped sharply in those cities. In Vancouver, the share of 25- to 39-year-olds owning detached houses fell from 36.3% in 1991 to 12.2% in 2021. Toronto posted a decline from 32.7% to 19.4%.
At the same time, ownership of apartments and condominiums increased as younger buyers shifted toward smaller properties.
“These condominium apartments are typically smaller than single-detached, semi-detached and row houses, and they have become progressively smaller in recent decades,” the report noted.
Statistics Canada said the trend toward living with parents predates the most recent affordability crisis and has developed gradually over decades across major cities. The study suggested that affordability alone does not explain the changes, with cultural patterns and demographic shifts also contributing.
Among Canadian-born millennials, racialized individuals were significantly more likely to live with parents than non-racialized, non-Indigenous peers. In 2021, 39.4% of Canadian-born racialized millennials lived with parents, compared with 14.0% among non-racialized, non-Indigenous millennials.
The agency said future research will focus on affordability pressures by examining shelter costs relative to household incomes across generations.
