37% more UK young adults live with parents than a decade ago, study finds

LONDON — More young adults than ever before in the United Kingdom are still shacking up with their parents, a trend that is reflected worldwide, a new study finds.

Aviva Insurance, a British multinational insurance firm, conducted an analysis of two age groups in the UK: 21- to 34-year-olds and 25- to 34-year-olds. The statistics came from the latest update of the “Young Adults Living With Their Parents” dataset compiled by the Officer for National Studies and a separate survey of 500 people ages 16-34 conducted for Aviva in April.

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A new study finds that 37 percent of young adults in the United Kingdom are still living with their parents — more than ever before.

The insurance company found that over the past 10 years the number of individuals aged 25 to 34 who lived with their parents had grown by 37 percent— from 903,000 to 1.23 million.

Meanwhile, the slightly broader age bracket of 21- to 34-year-olds saw a 29 percent jump — from 2.2 to 2.9 million — in the number of those who lived with their parents.

This dramatic increase in young adults living at home was largely attributed to a sharp increase in the cost of buying a home.

First-time home buyers saw a 45 percent increase in the cost of buying a home — from £146,000 (about $189,552 dollars) to £211,000 (about $273,941) — during this period.

Interestingly, while 62 percent of respondents said that they couldn’t afford to move out, 48 percent simply said that they lived with family to save money.

“The challenges of getting on the property ladder are well publicized, but it’s startling to see that one in three adults who live with parents expect never to own a property and further fifth believe the only way they will own a home is by inheriting one,” says Lindsay Rix, Personal Lines Managing Director for Aviva’s UK general insurance business, in a company press release.

“However there is good news too,” she adds, “as the majority of ‘children’ in this situation are happy with this set-up, so in many cases there may be no desire to leave. If house prices continue to rise at their current rate, we can expect the proportion of adult children living with parents to grow even further.

Smaller numbers of children liked being looked after by their parents (24 percent), looking over their parents (14 percent), or felt “scared” to move out (10 percent).

Men made up 68 percent of 25- to-34-year-olds who lived with their parents, and were slightly more likely to express being “very happy” with their living situation.

With a third of young adults who live with their parents expressing that they don’t ever expect to own a home, it is believed that almost 500,000 additional children could live with their parents in another 10 years.

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