Families traveling from far-flung places, returning home for the holidays. That image of Christmas fits the perception of Americans as rootless, constantly on the move to seek opportunity — even if it means leaving family behind.
Yet that picture masks a key fact: The typical adult lives only 18 miles from his or her mother, according to an Upshot analysis of data from a survey of older Americans. Over the past few decades, Americans have become less mobile, and most adults — especially those with less education or lower incomes — do not venture far from their hometowns.
The data reveal a country of close-knit families, with members of multiple generations leaning on one another for financial and practical support. The trend will continue, social scientists say, as baby boomers need more care in old age, and a growing number of two-income families seek help with child care.
The United States offers less government help for caregiving than many other rich countries. Instead, extended families are providing it, whether they never moved apart, or moved back closer when the need arose.
Overall, the median distance that Americans live from their mothers is 18 miles, and only 20 percent live more than a couple hours' drive from their parents. (Researchers often study the distance from mothers because they are more likely to be caregivers and to live longer than men.)
To some extent, people's proximity to parents is a reflection of opportunity: The biggest determinants of how far people venture from home are education and income. Those with college and professional degrees are much more likely to live farther from their parents than those with a high school education, in part because they have more job opportunities in big cities, especially if spouses are juggling the career aspirations of two professionals.
Wealthier people can afford to pay for services like child and elder care, while low-income families are more likely to rely on nearby relatives. It seems likely that the more education someone has, the farther from home they go, said Robert A. Pollak, an economist at Washington University in St. Louis who studies the economics of family. Middle-class and educated two-income couples — say, a schoolteacher and a nurse — seem to be more likely to live near parents than those with professional degrees.
"It speaks to a class divide in the population," Pollak said. "Particularly as you go further down the socioeconomic scale, people are living pretty close to their parents, and this means they're able to provide help."
Families live closest in the Northeast and South, and farthest apart on the West Coast and in the Mountain States. Part of the reason is probably cultural — Western families have historically been the least rooted — but a large part is geographical: People live farther apart in rural areas.
Married people live farther from their parents than singles, and women are slightly likelier than men to leave their hometowns. Blacks are more likely to live near their parents than whites, while Latinos are no more likely to live near their parents but are more likely to live with them, according to data from Janice Compton, an economist at the University of Manitoba, and Pollak.
Economists, always eager to quantify things, see family caregiving dynamics during adulthood as a series of trade-offs and payments — of either time or money. Grandparents help care for grandchildren; their own children will help care for them later.
Career and income affect which type of payment families choose. The most-cited reason for living near home is the tug of family ties, while the most-cited reason for leaving is job opportunities, according to a Pew Research Center survey. It found that with the exception of college or military service, 37 percent of Americans had never lived outside their hometown and 57 percent had never left their state.
Culture also plays a role: Mexican-American households are more likely to provide in-person care, while Euro-American households are more likely to provide financial support, according to research led by Natalia Sarkisian, a sociologist at Boston College.
Grown children are the single greatest source of care for the elderly in the United States, according to AARP. But the supply of family caregivers is not keeping pace with demand, the group found: There are now seven potential family caregivers for every person over 80, and it's expected to fall to four by 2030.
Generational help goes the other direction, too, as grown children turn to their parents for child care for their own children. Most families that earn less than $30,000 a year depend on family members for child care, while those that earn more than $75,000 are more likely to enroll young children in day care. Yet dual-earner families of all income levels need backup sometimes, and without family support, one parent, usually the mother, can feel forced to stop working.