No matter how much they love their children, the vast majority of parents look forward to the day when they can officially become 'empty nesters'.

That's the time when the adult kids have found their own place and their own life, giving Mom and Dad a chance to transition back to the couple they were before babies came along.

Lately though that rite of passage has been put on hold as more and more adult children are either returning to their parents' home or not ever leaving in the first place  in order to survive today's increasingly challenging economic realities.

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In some places in the Eastern United States especially, several states are seeing more than four-in-ten adult kids back under Mom and Dad's roof.

That is NOT the case in South Dakota.

According to 24/7 Wall St., the Mount Rushmore State has the lowest percentage of children ages 18 to 34 living with their parents.

Just 17.6 percent of adult children in South Dakota share a home with Mom and Dad. Montana is the only other state where that number is less than 20 percent (19.7%).

FEWEST ADULT CHILDREN LIVING WITH PARENTS

  1. South Dakota - 17.6%
  2. Montana - 19.7%
  3. North Dakota - 20.2%
  4. Nebraska - 23%
  5. Vermont - 23.3%
  6. Alaska - 24%
  7. Oregon - 24.1%
  8. Tennessee - 24.4%
  9. Wyoming - 24.4%
  10. Idaho - 24.7%

So what separates South Dakota adult kids from the rest of the country?

In a word - marriage.

Nearly 35 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds in the state live with a spouse. That's the third-highest rate in America.

The other number helping to keep those South Dakota nests empty is unemployment.

At 2.8 percent, the state has the seventh-lowest rate in the nation.

MOST ADULT CHILDREN LIVING WITH PARENTS

  1. Maryland - 48.3%
  2. Delaware - 45.8%
  3. New Jersey - 45.1%
  4. Massachusetts - 44.5%
  5. Hawaii - 44.4%
  6. New York - 41.5%
  7. Rhode Island - 41.4%
  8. New Hampshire - 40.9%
  9. California - 40.3%
  10. Pennsylvania - 38.4%

Falls Park

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