Cost of living means fewer couples in 20s cohabiting

PEOPLE in their 20s are less likely to live together as a couple than in previous generations, figures show.

Researchers at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that a lower proportion of 28-year-olds lived with a partner than 10 years earlier.

In 2011, 53 per cent of people aged 28 lived with a partner compared with 50 per cent in 2021, according to census data. The shift comes against the backdrop of couples marrying and deciding to have children later in life, if at all, while also battling rising housing costs.

Brienna Perelli-harris, professor of demography at the University of Southampton, said: “This could be due to a number of factors. Individuals are more likely to remain single for longer – maybe they are spending more time dating, haven’t yet found the right person, or have no interest in forming a partnership (and relaxed social norms could play a role).

“Or they may have found a partner but not yet be ready to move in with them. They could still be living with their parents in order to save on rent or costs. So yes, young people are continuing to delay family formation.”

The data analyses various milestones that mark out adult life, the age at which people experience them and how they have changed over time.

The ONS said: “There has been a decrease in the percentages of people aged under 30 years living in a couple since 2011.”

Most cohabiting couples aged between 25 and 29 were not married or in a civil partnership in 2021, some 72 per cent – a rise from 56 per cent in 2011.

The median age at first marriage has also been steadily increasing since the 1960s. For opposite-sex couples married in 2020, the median age was 32 years for men and 30 years for women. For those entering into same-sex marriage, the median age was older, at 36 years for men and 32 years for women.

Furthermore, the researchers found that the average age at which women in England and Wales have their first babies has been increasing since the 1970s. In 1970, the average age that women had their first baby was 23. In 2020, it was 29.

People are also moving out of the family home later in life, with researchers finding that the age at which more than half of people did not live with their parents had increased from 21 in 2011 to 24 in 2021.

“Leaving the family home is thought of as one of the first markers of entering adulthood, but young people are doing so later than in the past,” they said.