The proportion of 25 to 34-year-olds living with their parents has risen by more than a third in just under two decades, according to new analysis.
Last year, the share of the age group living at home was almost a fifth (18%), up from 13% in 2006, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said in its Hotel Of Mum and Dad? report.
The latest figure is down from a pandemic high of 21%, but the five percentage point rise represents an estimated 450,000 more people in this age group living with their parents in 2024 than if it had stayed at the 2006 level.
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Men were more likely than women to be living at home, 23% against 15%, while rates were higher among UK-born young people from Bangladeshi and Indian backgrounds, at 62% and 50% respectively.
Living with parents is “particularly common” among those with the lowest income, researchers said, with only 2% of the top income quintile of 25-34-year-olds doing so.
While the trend for those in their early 30s remained largely unchanged, the IFS said, the share of 25 to 29-year-olds living at home rose from 20% in 2006 to 28% last year.
The largest rise, with researchers comparing the 12 months leading to March 2007 and the year up to March 2024, was in the east of England – from 14% to 22%.
The South West and South East saw rises from 12% to 18% and the North West and London respectively increased from 14% to 20%.
The share of young adults in Scotland living with their parents grew from 13% to 18%; in Wales, it rose from 17% to 20%, and in Northern Ireland from 21% to 23%.
Those living with parents, the report said, would likely have some ability to save with 14% banking more than £10,000 over a two-year period compared to an estimated 10% of young adults in private rented accommodation.
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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.”
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She added others would likely be living at home “due to a bad shock of some kind”, such as redundancy or the breakdown of a relationship.
