Most parents support their grown kids financially, survey reveals: Here's how much

For many American parents, turning 18 doesn't mean the end of financial support. 

New data shows millions of parents are continuing to helping their adult children pay for everything from groceries and housing to everyday bills and other expenses.

Majority of parents say they financially support their grown kids

Big picture view:

A 2026 survey commissioned by LendingTree found that more than 7 in 10 parents with children age 18 or older, or 71%, said they have financially supported an adult child at some point. Forty-four percent said they had provided that support within the past two years.

Among these recent supporters, 32% said they provided money multiple times a month. And 3 in 10 expected to keep helping indefinitely, or as long as needed.

According to the data, the assistance often went toward everyday expenses. Among parents who provided support during the past two years, 53% said they helped pay for groceries or meals, while 35% helped with cellphone, internet or other subscriptions, and another 35% helped with everyday bills or general living expenses. A quarter helped with housing costs.

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Most of the time, kids were the ones asking for financial assistance, with 45% saying their grown kids requested the help, the data found. But 29% of adult children said their parents offered support before they even brought it up.

Higher-earning adults were more likely to receive help from parents than lower-earning adults. While 33% of six-figure earners received parental assistance, only 23% of those earning less than $30,000 did. 

Parents provided adult children more than $4,700 in 2024

Dig deeper:

Separate data from the U.S. Census Bureau stated that about 2.6 million U.S. parents provided nearly $27 billion in financial support to 3.7 million children ages 21 and older who lived outside their parents' households in 2024. The figures did not include financial support for adult children who lived at home.

The Census Bureau found the median annual amount parents provided to adult children living outside the household was $4,725 in 2024. Most parents who provided financial support – 72.7% – helped one adult child, while 18.8% supported two and 8.6% supported three or more.

The bureau data also highlights how common living with parents remained among young adults. In 2024, 58.3% of men and 56.4% of women ages 18 to 34 lived with their parents.

Historically, there was a significant increase in support from parents in 2017 that remained elevated in 2018, coinciding with an increase in earnings of all workers, the federal agency noted. However, this was followed by a significant drop in support in 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

Helping children does come with financial consequences

The other side:

For parents, however, helping adult children came with financial consequences of their own, according to LendingTree’s findings.

In the LendingTree analysis, nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of parents who provided financial support in the past two years said they had felt financially stressed because of it at least sometimes.

Some parents said the support made them less able to cover everyday expenses (18%), pay off debt (16%), build or maintain savings (13%) or save for retirement (11%).  

What they're saying:

"It tells you there’s no magic age when parenting stops, and for many families, financial support has become part of parenting an adult child," Matthew Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer financial analyst, said in a statement. "However, help can become dangerous when it keeps parents from paying their own bills, tackling debt, saving for emergencies, preparing for retirement or pursuing other big financial goals. You can’t help your kid by putting your financial future at risk."

Grown kids suggest the help received was a necessity

Dig deeper:

Despite this, the findings by LendingTree suggested that the help they received was a necessity. 

RELATED: Almost 40% of Americans receive financial help from family to buy a house: Survey

A sizable 38% of recipients said their current living expenses would be difficult or impossible to manage without it. Meanwhile, confidence about the future was shaky, too. Only 44% said they were very confident they could become financially independent within the next two years.

Schulz says that given the current financial reality, it’s understandable that so many young people rely on their parents.

"Life is really expensive in 2026, and it isn’t likely to get much better anytime soon," he said. "Many young adults appear to be struggling with the basic math of everyday life, including food, housing, clothing and gas. Add in student loan debt, credit card bills and other types of debt that many face, and things get messy in a hurry. Unfortunately, that’s what many young Americans face today, and our data shows many expect to continue to struggle for years to come."