A million more adults living with parents than 10 years ago

New data published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveals that 3.4 million young adults lived with their parents last year. Around two thirds of those living at home are men.

The startling figure of young people not living in a home of their own is a 24 per cent jump from 2008.

Average house prices across the UK have risen by 23 per cent in that time.

Last month The Big Issue reported that families with a sole full-time bread-winner would be forced to spend more than 30 per cent of their pay on rent in 320 local authority areas. That is 98 per cent of the entire country.

Shelter has called for more social housing to bring down soaring rents and house prices which block single people and low earners from moving to new homes.

ONS figures published this week also showed cohabiting couples were the fastest growing type of family over the past decade.

The number of cohabiting couple families rocketed by 25.8% from 2.7 million 10 years ago to 3.4 million in 2018.

The information bureau has suggested the rise is symptomatic of the trend of living together either before or instead of marrying.

The number of families in the UK as a whole also rose by 7.6% from 17.7 million in 2008 to 19.1 million in 2018. The rise was almost identical to the rise in population in the country over the same period.

ONS population statistician Sophie Sanders said: “While married couple families remain the most common, cohabiting couples are the fastest growing family type as people increasingly choose to live together before, or without, getting married.”

As part of the study, the ONS defined a family as a married, civil partnered or cohabiting couple with or without children, or a lone parent with at least one child, whole live at the same address.

The most common type of family last year was married couples or civil partners – accounting for two-thirds of all families.

The ONS added that the introduction of gay marriage in 2015 sparked a rapid growth in same-sex marriage families which doubled to 68,000 from 2017 to 2018.