Is staying at home the new norm?

Moving out of the family home has traditionally been thought of as one of the key milestones of adulthood. But findings from Child of the New Century highlight that living independently was out of reach for many of your generation into your early 20s.

What we asked you

When we caught up with you for the Age 23 Survey, we asked about your living arrangements. If you lived at home with your parents, you told us the main reason for this. We covered other life milestones too, with questions for you about relationships and having children.

A team of researchers at the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, home to Child of the New Century, analysed all this information to understand your generation’s experiences of these big life events.

What the research found

At age 23, more than two thirds of you (68%) were living with your parents. Around one in five of you (21%) were renting your own place, and only a very small minority of you (5%) had bought your own home.

For many of those living at home, it was a question of finances. Around one in five (17%) said you lived with your parents because you were actively saving for a deposit on a place, while almost a quarter (23%) said you simply couldn’t afford to move out.

But it wasn’t always about money. For some of you, living at home seemed to be a positive choice — one in eight (12%) told us you didn’t want to move out yet.

Millennials vs gen Z

The researchers compared your experiences to those of a cohort of millennials, born in 1989-1990, who are part of a similar study. The difference was striking. At age 23, your generation, gen Z, were almost three times as likely to be living with your parents as the older millennial cohort had been at age 25, ten years earlier (68% compared to 23%).

Relationships and having children

More than half (54%) of study members had a romantic partner at the time of this survey. Most people who were in a relationship weren’t living with their partner. The proportion living with their partner was lower than it had been for the millennial generation at around a similar age. Female study members were more likely than male study members to be living with a partner (21% compared to 12%).

Thinking about the future, more than six in 10 of you said you would definitely like to become parents or have more children if you had already started a family. A further three in 10 said you might want children. Only a small minority (8%) said that having children was not part of your plans.

Why this research matters

These findings show how the journey through early adult life has been changing over time, with your generation experiencing these traditional markers of adulthood differently to previous generations.

Commenting on the research, lead author, Dr Charlotte Booth (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) said:

“With the prolonged impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, gen Z are navigating the transition to adulthood in challenging economic circumstances… ?Policymakers should consider helping young people to gain independence through policies that support them to find affordable homes and good jobs.”

Read the full research report

Early family transitions – Initial findings from the Millennium Cohort Study at Age 23 by Charlotte Booth and Emla Fitzsimons was published by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies in February 2026.

In the media

These findings were reported in the national media, including in The Times, the Independent, and on BBC Radio 5 Live.