FAMILY TYPES
Two in three are married
Married couples make up 65.3% of families. Cohabiting couples and lone parents account for most of the rest.
Compare the typesWHAT THE STATISTICS SAY
Family life,
by the numbers.
There are 19.9 million families in the UK. They look less alike than you might think.
Explore family types
19.9MUK families
- Who we live with
- Staying at home
- Smaller families
- Every source linked
Who shares a home, how many grown-up children are still at the kitchen table, and how births and marriages are changing. Official statistics, in plain English, with every source linked.
Figures from the ONS and other official sources.
Updated
THE SHORT ANSWER
More families, smaller ones.
The UK had 1.2 million more families in 2025
than in 2015, and 29.0 million households.
AT HOME
Grown-up, still at home
28.7% of 20 to 34-year-olds lived with their parents in 2025, up from 25.4% ten years earlier.
See the split
NEW FAMILIES
Fewer, later births
Fertility in England and Wales hit a record low of 1.41 children per woman in 2024, with mothers 31 on average.
Read the factsFAMILY TYPES, 2025
What kind of family
is most common?
Pick a family type to see its share of the 19.9 million families in the UK. The figures come from the Office for National Statistics' estimates for 2025.
The ONS counts a family as a couple, with or without children, or a lone parent with at least one child, living in the same household.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
Full houses,
quiet ones too.
Some homes are staying fuller for longer,
while more people live on their own.
34.9% vs 22.3%
Aged 20 to 34, living with parents
Young men are far more likely than young women to live in the family home. Across both, the share rose from 25.4% in 2015 to 28.7% in 2025.
AT HOME · 2025
8.6 million
People living alone in the UK
That is 29.5% of all households. Nearly half of the people living alone (49.6%) were aged 65 or over, up from 46.9% in 2015.
ON THEIR OWN · 2025
Both figures come from the same ONS survey, and they describe two ends of family life: children staying on, and households that have shrunk to one.
USE THE NUMBERS
Four ways to read
family statistics.
Check which area is counted
Family and household figures cover the whole UK. Births and marriages are published for England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland publish their own.
Notice families versus households
A household is everyone sharing a home; a family is a couple or lone parent with children. One household can hold more than one family.
Look for “not significant”
The ONS marks changes that could be down to survey sampling. The rise in people living alone, for example, was not statistically significant once population growth was counted.
Mark 15 May
The UN's International Day of Families falls on 15 May each year, a useful moment to look at the newest figures together.
FAMILY FACTS
Five things worth
knowing.
Most families have one or two children
Of UK families with dependent children in 2025, 45.0% had one child, 41.0% had two and 14.1% had three or more.
Births are at a record low
The total fertility rate in England and Wales was 1.41 children per woman in 2024, the lowest on record for the third year in a row.
Parents are older
The standardised mean age of mothers in England and Wales was 31.0 in 2024, and of fathers 33.9.
Most weddings are civil
There were 246,897 marriages in England and Wales in 2022. 83.0% were civil ceremonies and 17.0% religious. The median age for an opposite-sex marriage was 32.7 for men and 31.2 for women.
Close ties matter later on
A Harvard study that began in 1938 has followed 724 men over their lives. Its director reported that people most satisfied in their relationships at 50 were the healthiest at 80.
QUICK QUESTIONS
Families, answered.
Short answers to the questions people ask most.
How many families are there in the UK?
The Office for National Statistics estimated 19.9 million families in the UK in 2025, up from 18.7 million in 2015. There were 29.0 million households, with an average of 2.36 people in each.
What is the most common type of family in the UK?
Married couples. In 2025 they made up 65.3% of families. Cohabiting couples were 17.6%, lone-parent families 16.0% and civil-partnered couples about 1.1%.
How many young adults live with their parents?
In 2025, 28.7% of people aged 20 to 34 in the UK lived with their parents, up from 25.4% in 2015. Young men were more likely to than young women: 34.9% against 22.3%.
How many children does the average family have?
Of UK families with dependent children in 2025, 45.0% had one child, 41.0% had two and 14.1% had three or more. In England and Wales the total fertility rate fell to 1.41 children per woman in 2024, a record low for the third year running.
When is the International Day of Families?
It is held every year on 15 May. The UN General Assembly proclaimed it in resolution 47/237 of 20 September 1993.
Where the facts come from
- Families and households in the UK: 2025Office for National Statistics
- Births in England and Wales: 2024Office for National Statistics
- Marriages in England and Wales: 2021 and 2022Office for National Statistics
- Good genes are nice, but joy is better (Harvard Study of Adult Development)Harvard Gazette, 2017
- International Day of Families, 15 May (resolution 47/237)United Nations
- Families and households in the UK: 2024 (previous year)Office for National Statistics