Rise in people living alone in UK driven entirely by over-65s

Independent

4 days ago

A rise in the number of people living alone in the UK in the past decade has been entirely driven by an increase in older people residing on their own.
In 2024, there were an estimated 4.3 million people aged over 65 living alone, up from 3.5 million in 2014, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
This age group accounted for just over half (51.1%) of all people living alone last year, compared with 45.5% in 2014.
The statistics body said: ' People aged 65 years or over accounted in full for the increase in people living alone in 2024 compared with 2014.'
There were around 4.1 million people aged under 65 years old living alone in both 2014 and 2024, the ONS said, adding that the 'increasing proportions of people living alone in older age groups reflects an ageing population'.
A higher proportion of women aged 65 or over in households lived alone (40.9%) than men of the same age (27%), which the ONS said is partly because of women having a higher life expectancy than men.
The latest data from the ONS estimated there were 8.4 million people living alone in the UK in 2024, up 11% from 7.6 million in 2014.
Meanwhile, the proportion of young adults in the UK living with their parents has grown by almost 10% in a decade.
Young men – aged between 20 and 34 years old – were more likely to be at home with their parents than women in the same age group in 2024, according to the ONS.
There were an estimated 3.6 million people in this age group in a family with their parent or parents in 2024, up 9.9% from 3.3 million in 2014, the ONS said.
While a third (33.7%) of men in this age group lived with parents, this compared to less than a quarter (22.1%) of women.
The ONS said more young adults living with their parents at older ages is part of a 'trend of adults reaching milestones later in life' and may be 'explained by a number of factors including increased housing costs'.
The latest statistics also showed that lone-parent families were less likely to contain dependent children in 2024 – 62.5%, down from just over two thirds or 66.1% in 2014.
The proportion of lone parents who are fathers has grown, from 13.1% a decade ago, to 16.7% last year.
While married couples still made up the largest proportion of families in the latest estimates, this has decreased to 65.1% last year from 67.1% in 2014.
The ONS said this was down to more couples living together without getting married.