Leaving home used to be a rite of passage for young people, but thanks, in part, to the housing crisis, the traditional stepping stones of life are floating farther away down the lake thatis life, and young people are putting off fleeing the nest until later on in life. However, it looks as if young men are staying in the family home way longer than young women.
According to Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures, a third (32%) of young men aged 20-34 are still living at home, compared with 20% of women. That’s a pretty big difference, but all put together, that’s 2.4 million people aged 20-34 still living in their family home, reports The Times.
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The ONS was keen to point out that this could be down to several things: an extended period of education or training, settling into relationships or parenthood at a later age, and, of course, the rising costs of owning or renting a home.
Interesting, though, that young women, who pay no more or less than young men to live somewhere, and have no more or less struggle saving up to buy a deposit than their male counterparts, are moving out earlier. Is this down to them being more likely to have an older partner they can move out with? Is it because younger men aren’t going to university as much as young women? Or could it be because younger women are more go-getting than their male cohort? We can’t answer any of this right now, but it’s got us to thinking. Is the idea of an adult man living in his mum’s basement actually a lot realer than we think? Or could they live in attics instead?
More people than ever live alone: 3.9 million in total. And 58% of those people are men. This, ONS suggest, is because men who divorce or leave a partner are less likely to live with their children, or because older men are more likely to never cohabit, or leave it until later in life, when they move in with younger women (who are probably leaving home younger than their male cohort!)
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.