Nearly eight million people are living alone in the UK according to figures out today from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
3.9 million of them were aged 16 to 64 years of which the larger proportion were male while similarly there were 3.8 million people living alone aged 65 and over but a larger proportion were female.
The trends in living arrangements study showed that in 2017 there were 19.0 million families in the UK, a 15% increase 1996.
With 12.9 million families, the married or civil partner couple family remains the most common in 2017, with the cohabiting couple family growing the fastest while across the country there were 27.2 million households in 2017, resulting in an average household size of 2.4.
The survey also found that Young males were more likely to be living with their parents than young females.Around 32% of males aged 20 to 34 years were living with their parents compared with 20% of females aged 20 to 34 years in 2017.
“In 2017, the most common family type in the UK was the married or civil partner couple family (12.9 million families). Opposite-sex couples were most likely to be in married couple families whereas same-sex couples were most likely to be in cohabiting couple families. This is likely to be because civil partnerships and marriages between same-sex couples in particular, are relatively new legal union statuses.” said a spokesman for the ONS
