I’m in Arizona for a Bosch event, which should be interesting, so hopefully I’ll have a lot to report when I return. In the meantime, I wanted to mention a piece of news that crossed my desk right before KBIS.

It’s a report from AARP regarding the rise of multigenerational households—a phenomenon that, for some of you, may not come as a surprise. According to the organization, the number of such households grew by one-half million from 2009 to 2010, with the last two years seeing the fastest increase than any other two-year period since 2000. Currently, there are more than 7 million multigenerational households in the U.S (also of interest—to me, at least—one in five adults age 25 to 34 already live in such a household).

The recession, of course, may have played a significant role in the increase. As Amy Goyer, AARP family expert noted, “More grandparents, children and grandchildren are moving in together both to save money and to take care of each other. The past couple of years have not been easy for families financially.”

AARP defines “multigenerational households” as those where three generations are living in the same home, as well as those where the householder lives with their parents or with their grandchildren. Here’s the breakdown in numbers for 2010:

• Householder, child and grandchild: 2.5 million
• Householder with parent: 2.2 million
• Householder with parent and child: 1.2 million
• Householder with grandchild: 1.1 million
• Householder with parent, child and grandchild: 68,000
• Householder with parent and grandchild: 25,000

Given these statistics, the aging of the Boomers and the slow pace of the economic recovery, I imagine this trend will continue, making the need for Universal Design product ever more critical. Although this year’s KBIS was much smaller, it did have its share of exhibitors who are paying attention to this need.

If you’re interested in learning more about the AARP study or to download a copy, click here.

I’ll be back with a report of the Bosch event (hopefully) and a few posts (again hopefully) on ICFF, which is taking place this weekend. I look forward to the show!

—Alice

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 12th, 2011 at 9:48 AM and is filed under Trends, Universal Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.