More people in their late 20s are still living with their parents.

A perception – or possibly a fear – that there are still 20-somethings hanging around the family home is based on reality, an influential think tank has concluded.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds has increased by more than a third in almost two decades.

The researchers found that the tendency to stay at home was driven by men and those in their late 20s.

Higher rental costs and rising house prices were the main reasons for this change.

In 2006, around 13% of people aged 25 to 34 in the UK were living with their parents.

By last year, it had risen to 18%, according to the IFS – an independent economic think tank.

That equates to about 450,000 more young adults still living in the family home — a focus on those in their late 20s, the researchers found.

Among the 25- to 34-year-olds, men were more likely than women to live at home, 23 percent compared to 15 percent.

The IFS said that this age group has changed in recent decades, so the chances of being married and having children have decreased. They were also more ethnically diverse, and UK-born young people from Bangladeshi and Indian backgrounds were more likely to live with their parents.

Adult children living at home peaked during the pandemic, when more than a fifth of 25- to 34-year-olds did so.

Now, in more normal times, parents might hope that their older children will fly the nest, but many 20-somethings will wish they could afford to do so.

The IFS said finances were a key constant, with rising rents and house prices driving the trend.

One 25-year-old who moved back into his parents’ house was Zach Murphy from London, who had previously shared a flat with two friends. He told the BBC As to his apprehensions, viz The BBC’s new housing tracker Revealed the challenges facing the government’s housing target.

While studying for a master’s degree in environmental science, Zach was inspired by ambitions for a better job, but renting himself “was out of the question, unless you wanted to live in a shoebox”, and buying now Also feels out of reach. .

“It’s getting harder and harder to save. There seems to be no hope of getting on the housing ladder in London,” he said.

Danny McGuire, 33, lives with his parents in Warrington, Cheshire.

He had lived away before, including for a time abroad, but moved back into the family home during the pandemic.

“It’s a really common situation,” he told 5 Live Breakfast.

Danny, who works for a local council, said he wanted to live independently but found himself with an “ever-decreasing” amount of money left over each month to save for a house. He said prices were rising and it was difficult to save enough to collect on his own.

“Ultimately you have to make a tough decision, really, do I save longer or do I bite the bullet, go back home and try to keep saving more money?” he said.

Some of his friends were given money by their parents for deposits but Danny said his family were unable to help him financially – instead offering him a place to live so he could save up.

He pays his parents for rent and groceries but is able to save “significant chunks of money every month”, and hopes to buy his own house this year.

The IFS concluded that some young people could save by staying at home. Around 14% had accumulated more than £10,000 over a two-year period, compared with an estimated 10% of young adults in private rented accommodation.

However, this was not true across the board because of the potential for high travel costs, or because some moved due to financial difficulties.

“For some, living with parents offers the opportunity to save much faster than renting – which is a particularly valuable advantage in high-cost places like London,” he said. said B. Boileau, Research Economist at IFS and an author. Report

“However, others are likely to stay at home because of some kind of bad trauma – such as the end of a relationship or redundancy – or simply because they cannot afford to live independently. “

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