NEW YORK—Not surprisingly, especially given the rigors of the pandemic of the past two-plus year, most Americans value living close to their families, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Indeed, the survey found that more than half of respondents actually do live close to their family members.

Overall, 55 percent of U.S. adults say they live within an hour’s drive of at least some of their extended family members, according to Pew Research Center’s findings. Roughly equal shares of Americans say they live near all or most of their extended family (28 percent) or near some extended family (27 percent). Another 24 percent of adults say they live within an hour’s drive of only a few family members, while one-in-five (about 20 percent) say they do not live near any extended family members. 

“Only 1 percent of Americans say they don’t have extended family at all,” according to Pew’s analysis of the survey’s findings (which defined extended family as children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and in-laws who don’t currently live with the respondent).

Those with the highest education levels are the “least” likely to live close to extended family. About four-in-10 adults with a postgraduate degree (42 percent) have at least some extended family members within an hour’s drive, compared with 48 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree, 56 percent of those with some college experience and 63 percent of adults with a high school diploma or less education. 

About one-third of adults with a postgraduate degree (32 percent) do not live near any extended family, compared with 14 percent of those with a high school education or less, according to Pew Research’s report on the survey’s findings.