The proportion of 25-year-olds in Britain living with their parents has risen from 25% in the 1990s to 42% today, according to Institute for Fiscal Studies research partly commissioned for the BBC. The study finds that co-residence among people in their 20s and 30s has grown by more than a third over the past two decades, driven largely by worsening housing affordability rather than shifting demographics.
Why are young adults staying home longer?
The core driver, according to the IFS, is not changing preferences but shrinking options. Employment rates among 25-year-olds have declined for both men and women, while real wages have stagnated at roughly the same level they were two decades ago. Home ownership among 25-year-olds has collapsed from 43% in the mid-1980s to just 15% now, leaving many without a realistic path to renting or buying independently.
Researchers note that factors such as the population’s changing age profile, education levels, ethnicity and migration patterns would normally be expected to reduce rates of co-residence, not increase them. Instead, the affordability crisis in housing has overridden those trends, pushing more young adults back into, or never out of, their parents’ homes.
How does this compare with other countries?
Despite the sharp rise, Britain’s rate of adults living with parents remains lower than in Italy and Spain, where multi-generational households are far more common and culturally normalised, often tied to timing of partnership rather than finishing education or starting a career. But observers caution that Britain is edging toward a similar pattern without the same social framework that makes it feel unremarkable elsewhere in Europe.
Young people are not choosing a cheaper living arrangement to save money — they are being forced into it as housing and job options narrow, researchers say.
What does this mean for inequality?
The trend is reshaping family support into a new axis of inequality. Those whose parents can offer free or subsidised housing gain a significant financial head start, while those without such backing face steeper barriers to saving, renting or buying. As wages stagnate and homeownership among young adults keeps falling, the ability to leave home is increasingly determined by parental wealth rather than personal effort or career progress.
