ONS – Families in England and Wales: Census 2021

Statistical bulletin 10 May 2023

Families in England and Wales: Census 2021

Change since 2011 and geography of family types: lone parent; multi-generational; same-sex couple; multi-family households; and children with a second parental address.

Main points

• More families had only non-dependent children in 2021 (17.1%) compared with 2011 (15.8%), while fewer families had dependent children (41.5% compared with 43.0% in 2011). Of all couple families, 41.3% had no children.
• In 2021, a higher proportion of lone parents were aged over 50 years (41.8%) than in 2011 (33.4%) and fewer lone parents were aged under 25 years in 2021 (3.6%) compared to 2011 (7.5%).
• In 2021, over half (52.4%) of children with a second parent or guardian’s address usually lived in a single-family household that contained a female lone parent family, an increase from 44.8% in 2011.
• A higher proportion of households were multi-generational in 2021 (2.1%) than 2011 (1.8%).

Go to our release

Today we have also published an article exploring adults who were living with their parents (non-dependent children) at the time of Census 2021.

Key findings:

• The number of families in England and Wales with adult children living with their parents rose 13.6% between Census 2011 and 2021 to nearly 3.8 million.
• Across England and Wales, the share of 20 to 24-year-olds living with their parents rose from 44.5% to just over half (51.2%).

Read more here