The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday February 23 2006
In the article below, we said, "Fertility rates reveal that between 2001 and 2004 the number of births per 1,000 women increased from 669,100 to 716,000." These were the total number of live births in the UK for those years.
A new generation of young British men are putting off leaving home well into their 20s, government statistics reveal today. In a trend that mirrors what happens in some southern European countries, particularly Italy, financial pressures mean that twenty-somethings are more likely to live with their parents, with 57% of men and 38% of women aged 20-24 living at home. By their late 20s more than one in five men still live with their parents - twice the proportion of women.
The findings are contained in the wide-ranging annual snapshot of social trends from the Office of National Statistics, which revealed shifts in where people live and who they live with. More people in England and Wales are living alone: by choice during their 20s, then through divorce in their 30s and bereavement from the age of 60.
There are 7m "singletons" in Britain. In the past these were mostly older, widowed women, but the largest increases are now among 25- to 44-year-olds. The proportion of one person households has almost doubled since 1971 and the average number of people per household has fallen from 2.9 to 2.4.
"More lone-parent families, smaller family sizes and the increase in one-person households has contributed to this decrease," the report said. The increase in men choosing to live with their parents was an "emerging trend" but this could be due to longer education, student fees and difficulties getting on the housing ladder.
Mary MacLeod, chief executive of the the National Family and Parenting Institute, which has studied extended youth dependency, said: "It's harder to get a job, it's harder to pay the bills, it's much harder for a young person in their 20s to be economically viable. But it is probably a gender thing too. Men enjoy the washing, cooking and home comforts of living at the hotel of mum and dad."
The report hinted at the state of flux that people in their 20s face as some are still living at home with their parents while others are already settled down with children. Increasingly families started by people in their early 20s are breaking down by the time they are 30.
In 2004 women were more likely than men to report having had one sexual partner during the past year while men were more likely to have had between two and four. Between 25 and 34 some 14% of men claimed to have had two or three sexual partners in a year compared with 6% of women. Women are also delaying settling down and having children in favour of education and a career, the report found.
Fertility rates reveal that between 2001 and 2004 the number of births per 1,000 women increased from 669,100 to 716,000. Over the past 30 years birth rates have increased for women aged 30-40 while they have fallen for younger women.
It might be harder for single people to find a home they can afford, the report suggested. Fewer than 1% of houses built in 2004-05 were one bedroom.
Disposable incomes rose by 2.1% per household in 2004. But the year also saw the highest ever number of insolvencies in England and Wales with a 31% annual increase to 46,700.
People are spending more on getting out of Britain: between 1980 and 2004 the number of passengers travelling to or from overseas countries rose from 43m to 167m. Between 2000 and 2004 the number of households with second homes abroad increased 45% to almost 257,000. Spain was the first choice followed by France.