Natasha Pilkauskas, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, added that the growing share of children born to unmarried parents, who don't live in the same household, is also helping drive growth in multigenerational living.
"A lot of it is driven by changes in family structure," Pilkauskas told Business Insider. "You do see that there are much higher rates of multigenerational households among divorced families than among married families."
Still, Pilkauskas said multigenerational living often isn't a household's first choice, and that for many families, the traditional nuclear family model remains the ideal.
"I still think people would desire the 'Leave It to Beaver' lifestyle," she said. "I think that this is coming from necessity, more than preference."
