Proportion of 25-34 year-olds at ‘hotel of mum and dad’ up by third since 2006

The proportion of 25 to 34-year-olds living with their parents has risen by more than a third in just under two decades, analysis suggests.

The share of this age group living at home was at almost a fifth (18%) last year, up from 13% in 2006, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in its Hotel Of Mum and Dad? report.

While the latest figure is down slightly from a pandemic peak of 21%, the five percentage point rise is still estimated to represent about 450,000 more people in this age group living with parents in 2024 than if it had stayed at the 2006 level.

Of 25 to 34-year-olds, men were more likely than women to be living at home (23% compared with 15%), while rates were higher among UK-born young people from Bangladeshi and Indian backgrounds (62% and 50% respectively).

Meanwhile, the trend for those in their early 30s changed very little, but the share of 25 to 29-year-olds living at home rose from a fifth (20%) in 2006 to more than a quarter (28%) last year, researchers said.

Those with lower incomes were more likely to be living at home, the IFS said, adding that the rise over recent decades has been “fuelled by” higher rents and soaring house prices.

The biggest rises in the proportion of young adults living at home tended to be higher in parts of the country that have seen particularly high house price growth since 2006, the report said.

The largest rise, comparing the 12 months to the end of March 2007 and the year to the end of March 2024, was in the east of England (from 14% to 22%).

The South West and South East rose from 12% to 18%, and the North West and London both increased from 14% to 20%

The share of young adults living with parents in Scotland grew from 13% to 18%, in Wales from 17% to 20% and in Northern Ireland from 21% to 23%.

Some young people can make savings by living at home – 14% accumulated more than £10,000 in a two-year period, compared with an estimated 10% of young adults in private rented accommodation.

But making savings was not the case for all those living at home, researchers said, as they noted some might have higher commuting costs because they live further from their jobs, while others might have returned to live with parents because of divorce or unemployment, resulting in higher related costs.

Bee Boileau, report author and research economist at the IFS, said: “In the last decade and a half, there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of young adults living with their parents.

“This has occurred alongside, and indeed has been fuelled by, increases in rents and house prices.

“For some, living with parents provides an opportunity to build up savings more quickly than if they were renting, which is an especially valuable advantage in high-cost places like London.

“However, others are likely to be living at a parental home due to a bad shock of some kind, such as the end of a relationship or a redundancy, or simply because they cannot afford to live independently.”

Published: 11/01/2025 by Radio NewsHub