Young Adults' Poverty at Age 22: Evidence from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) has been following a large and diverse sample of children born in 20 large US cities since their births in 1998 to 2000. The children—now young adults—were re-interviewed between October 2020 and January 2024, at age 22, responding to questions about their income, earnings, living arrangements, employment, education, family, financial support, health, identity, and more.

This brief focuses on poverty among young adults, overall and by gender and race/ethnicity. We also analyze poverty by living arrangement, given the importance of household composition in shaping the economic resources available to young adults. In particular, as highlighted in an earlier brief, approximately 10% of all young adults and 17% of young women were living with a dependent child at age 22—a circumstance that likely requires additional economic resources and may influence their experiences of poverty. To account for this, we examine poverty among young women living with a dependent child and also examine poverty for different household composition groups. All results are weighted so they are representative of young adults born in large cities in the United States.

As youth in the FFCWS cohort transition into young adulthood, the data offers a valuable opportunity to understand how today’s young adults are doing. This brief is the third in a series on young adults’ wellbeing at age 22 which also covers education, employment, disconnection; living arrangements; financial well-being; and health and mental health. 

Key Findings

• Close to one in three young adults born in large cities experience poverty at age 22—a rate twice as high as is found in the national data for the same age group.
• Living with a dependent child is strongly associated with higher poverty among young adults across almost all racial/ethnic groups.
• Poverty rates vary by household composition—the rate of poverty is generally lowest among young adults living with a spouse or parents, and highest among young adults in more unstable arrangements (e.g., with relatives, non-relatives, or alone).
• Poverty is especially high among Black young women with dependent children, across nearly all living arrangements.
• Considering the higher poverty rate for young women living with dependent children, these findings underscore the substantial economic burden faced by young adults—especially women—who are raising children

The study is a joint effort by Princeton University’s Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child and Family Wellbeing and the Columbia Population Research Center.

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study is a long-running collaborative birth cohort study, which has followed a large and diverse sample of children since their births in 1998 to 2000. The children were born in 20 large cities but now reside all over the United States. When weighted, the study provides data that is nationally representative of young adults born in large cities and as such is the only nationally representative sample of a contemporary cohort of young adults followed longitudinally since birth.

Suggested Citation:

Jung, Hye-Min, Megan Curran, and Jane Waldfogel. 2025. Young Adults' Poverty at Age 22: Evidence from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, Princeton, NJ: The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. 

Published on May 5, 2025