Surge in adults still living with parents as they delay getting married and having babies

Proportion of young adults living at home is at its highest ever recorded

Nearly 5 million non-dependent children live at home with their parents (Getty/iStock)

A record number of adults are living at home with their parents as they delay traditional life milestones such as getting married and having babies, new data shows.

Nearly 5 million adults were living with their parents in 2021, a 14.7 per cent increase from 2011 and the highest figure ever recorded.

The number has increased across all ages, although the largest increase was for those aged 25 to 29 years. London saw the largest increase, with some boroughs recording a 35 per cent jump compared to 10 years earlier.

The shift is likely to be down to life milestones – such as getting married and having a baby – being pushed back, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

However, statisticians said the coronavirus pandemic may have contributed to this increase by affecting people’s place of usual residence on the day the data was collected.

Young people are choosing to move out of their parents’ homes on average much later, with data from 2017 showing that more than 50 per cent waited till they were 23. Two decades earlier, more than 50 per cent of 21-year-olds had already left home.

People usually move in with their partner at the age of 27 on average and, in 2016, the average age for a first-time mother was 29. The age at which women have their first child has been gradually increasing to more than 40 years.

Data from the 2021 census also showed that there has been a stark increase in the number of children living at home in London, likely due to the lack of affordable housing. Councils with a high proportion of people staying at home also had above-average house prices, the ONS said.

The councils that saw a decrease in the number of young people living at home were mainly found in the North of England and the Midlands. Statisticians said this was likely reflecting the availability of affordable property in these areas, or that young adults leave these areas to find jobs or to get an education.

The number of people living together as a couple, but who were not in a marriage or civil partnership, has also increased over the past 10 years.

In 2011, only 20.6 per cent of couples were living together. This has now risen to 24.3 per cent in 2021.

Dependent children were classified as those aged under 16 and 16- to 18-year-olds who were in full-time education. All the rest were classified as non-dependent children.

Steve Smallwood, demography topic lead at the ONS, said: “We can see that there has been a significant increase in grown-up children living with their parents, with over half of those aged 19 to 23 doing so.

“This may reflect an overall increase in age at life milestones, including moving out of home, along with the impact of the pandemic on people’s living arrangements. We can also see that nearly a quarter of all couples who live together are not married or in a civil partnership, an increase since 2011.”

The census, which is carried out every 10 years, was completed by more than 24 million households across England and Wales on 21 March 2021.