Young Australians living with parents now make up half of everyone aged 18 to 29. The figure was 49.9% in 2024, up from 39.4% in 2001. For media planners, that is the gift of the decade.

The numbers come from the HILDA survey. HILDA stands for Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia. The Melbourne Institute at the University of Melbourne runs it, and it follows the same 17,000 people every year. That lets it show how real lives change over time. The ABC's Gareth Hutchens reported the 2026 findings on 24 September 2026. Lead author Dr Inga Lass said the survey "shows both the joys and the challenges of life".

The rise shows up in every age band. Among 18 to 21 year olds, 85.4% live with a parent. Among 22 to 25 year olds, it is 48.2%. At 26 to 29, 21.9% are still in the family home.

The survey also shows what moving out looks like. Two-thirds of young adults who have left home rent privately. In mainland capital cities, 25.3% of young private renters are in housing stress, up from 17.6% for the same age group in 2001. Housing stress means housing costs take so much of a household's income that other essentials get squeezed. Young people with a mortgage report steady numbers, from 8.6% in stress in 2001 to 9.9% in 2024. The report's authors say this suggests mortgages now go mainly to young adults with high pay, large savings or family money.

Set against those numbers, the spare room looks like a sensible choice. That part is genuinely hard for young adults, and the jokes in this piece are aimed at my own industry.

My take on this? Marketers pay platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to find young adults. The survey has found them for us. They are in the spare room, down the hall from the people who pay the power bill.

Your target market has moved back in with its parents.

Meet the household, your new audience

Every agency deck has a persona slide. Here is the 2026 version, built from the HILDA tables.

The parents are mostly doing well. HILDA asked people in couples to rate six parts of their relationship on a scale of 1 to 5. Among men, 72.6% said they love their partner "very, very much". Among women, the figure was 67.5%. Asked whether the relationship had met their original expectations, 40.5% of men said "completely". For women it was 33.5%.

So Dad thinks it is all going brilliantly. Mum has notes. Plan the anniversary campaign with both in mind.

The serious part: your customer's address has changed

Strip away the jokes and the survey makes a plain business case. Three findings show that your young customer now lives at the family home.

Reason one: at 18 to 21, living at home is the norm. That 85.4% turns a campaign aimed at 18 to 21 year olds into a campaign aimed at their parents' house. The young adult and the parent share the same letterbox, screen and fridge.

Reason two: young men lead the pack. HILDA shows 54.7% of men aged 18 to 29 live with their parents, against 45.1% of women. A brand that sells to young men should treat the family home as the place its customers live.

Reason three: young women made the big jump. In 2001, 62.7% of women aged 18 to 21 lived with their parents. By 2024 it was 83.9%, a rise of 21.2 percentage points, the jump that leads the HILDA table. A campaign built around a young woman in her own flat now speaks to a small slice of that age group.

Your customer lives at home now. Write, price and deliver for the house.

A media plan for a three-bedroom house

So where do you reach a young customer who lives with their parents? Here is the plan I would take into a client meeting. Each idea reaches two generations with one piece of work.

Advertise on the lounge-room TV. Streaming services sell ads that play on the shared family TV. The parent and the adult child see the same ad from the same couch. Write it for both viewers: one scene the parent recognises, and one line the young adult repeats.

Put a share button on your checkout. Some purchases need a second opinion or a second card from someone in the house. A link that opens the same cart on another phone makes that easy. The family group chat becomes part of your checkout.

Make the parcel the ad. Your delivery lands at the family home and sits on the kitchen bench until someone collects it. Print the box so the whole house can read it. Add an insert with an offer aimed at the other generation.

Design every offer to be forwarded. Families swap links in group chats. Give each offer a clear image, one line of text and a link that opens with no login. An offer that forwards in one tap can reach every phone in the house.

Earn a spot on the fridge. Local businesses have handed out fridge magnets and calendars for decades, because the fridge is where every member of the house looks. Give the house something useful to stick there: bin-night dates, public holidays, or your menu with your number on it.

Buy airtime for the shared car. Radio and podcast ads play to everyone in the car. On a family trip, that is two generations hearing one message. Choose shows both can sit through, such as local radio, sport or news.

Schedule for when the house is together. Dinner time and weekends are when both generations share a room. Put your TV and social spend there. Keep the placements aimed only at young adults for late at night.

How this hits your business

Find the households already in your data. Sort your customer list by delivery address. Two or more customers at one address are often one household. Send that household one offer, addressed to everyone in it.

Build an offer for the whole house. Household plans, add-a-member pricing and gift options for a parent buying for an adult child put one offer in front of both generations at once. Put one of them on your site this week.

Update your customer profile. Many businesses keep a written profile of their typical customer, often called a persona. Yours might show an 18 to 29 year old living alone in a city flat. That picture leaves out the half of the age group who live with their parents. Change the photos in your ads and on your website to show young adults at home with family. Write your copy for someone who shares a house with Mum and Dad. Remember that your parcels land at the family home, so a parent will often see the box and the delivery notice first.

Your next customer eats dinner with their parents. Market to the whole table.