UK Homeownership Among 25-Year-Olds Has Collapsed From 43% to 15%, IFS Data Shows

The numbers behind the complaint

The Institute for Fiscal Studies pulled decades of UK government data at the BBC's request, comparing 25-year-olds today against the same age group going back to the early 1980s. The result: homeownership among 25-year-olds has fallen from 43% in the mid-1980s to 15% today, according to the IFS analysis reported by the BBC.

Nearly two-thirds of an entire generation's path to ownership is gone. The reason isn't mysterious. Housing costs for both renters and mortgage-holders in their 20s are the highest they've ever been at that age relative to income, the IFS found. Wages for this age group have stagnated while the cost of running a household, bills, energy, everything, has climbed. Gen Z earns less on average than older age groups facing those same price hikes.

Living at home isn't a lifestyle choice

The share of 25-year-olds living with their parents has jumped from 25% in the 1990s to 42% now, per the IFS figures cited by the BBC. This reflects economic constraint, not preference.

Adam Daytona, 26, told the BBC he moved back in with his parents this year. "I think there's no world where it's normal to be 26 years old still living at home," he said. "It's unfair on me, it's unfair on my parents." He said the arrangement has affected his dating life and his mental health, calling it the worst years of his life rather than the best.

His parents, Jane, 57, and Neville, 64, told the BBC they were happy to have him but acknowledged the strain. "We're getting older and it would be nice to have a place to ourselves," Jane said. Parents are seeing their own lifestyles and futures clipped by having adult children still living at home.

Employment has slipped too

The IFS data also shows a dip in employment rates for this generation compared with their predecessors at the same age, with the jobs squeeze especially notable among young women, the BBC reported, reversing a decades-long trend of women entering the workforce in greater numbers. Employment among 25-year-old women has fallen, and men aged 25 today are also seeing lower employment rates than their age-equivalents in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, per the IFS figures.

Daisy Edwards, 25, moved back home with her parents in Guildford after losing her job in London. "When I lost that job, I immediately started job searching," she told the BBC, describing applying for several jobs a day. Her father, Dave, told the BBC he had only ever had one job interview across a 32-year career at the same company, calling the volume of applications Daisy submitted "crazy."

Wages have stalled

The IFS analysis, per the BBC, shows 25-year-olds in work generally earn more than their parents or grandparents did at that age. But after strong wage growth from the 1980s through the early 2000s, that progress stopped. "The big picture is stagnation," Jonathan Cribb, deputy director of the IFS, told the BBC. "It's not that these people are worse off than those that came before them, but it's that they're no better off and that progress has stalled."

Those born between 1987 and 1991 entered the workforce just after the financial crash and received the lowest average wages of any 25-year-olds over the last three decades, according to the IFS data cited by the BBC. Wages have since recovered somewhat but remain roughly where they were around two decades ago after accounting for inflation, the BBC reported.

What the data confirms

Young people and parents who contacted the BBC's Your Voice platform repeatedly raised frustration with the accusation that today's 20-somethings just aren't trying hard enough. The IFS numbers, tracking hard metrics like homeownership rates, wage growth and employment across four decades, back that up: wages stagnated and jobs got scarcer for reasons well beyond individual effort.

What's new here

The IFS gathered and analysed this government data for the first time at the BBC's request, comparing generations at age 25 across four decades. That gives a clearer picture than has existed before of just how much harder this cohort's start to adulthood has been compared with those before it.