Why do so many more adult men than adult women still live with their parents?

[Tsort]

Obviously, COVID and CoL have had a severe impact on young people’s ability to leave home, regardless of gender. However, the percentage of young men at home is so much higher. These are the percentages for 2021 (according to Statista), as you’ll see, the difference starts to get quite striking in the mid-20’s.

Age Male Female
34 11% 3%
33 11%. 2%
32 13% 5%
31 14% 6%
30 15% 6%
29 19% 9%
28 25% 12%
27 30% 13%
26 36% 21%
25 43% 25%
24 56% 40%
23 56% 50%
22 65% 54%
21 67% 50%
20 64% 57%
19 81% 76%
18 92% 89%

So, what gives, do you think? Is it the old trope of useless man children who can’t cope on their own? Is it that women more likely to want their independence? Something else?

The ones I know, it is usually because they have separated and the ex wife/ partner has stayed in the house with the kids and the bloke can't afford a home of his own anymore. My neighbours son has moved back home aged 28, his two kids stay every other weekend at grandparents house. i know a few in this situation.

Because women are usually conditioned to be more independent from a younger age, whether it's care for younger siblings or pets, home care, cooking, chores etc. So care for yourself and your surroundings is more ingrained in females by the time they leave school.

Also: women usually have to travel from the home to reach career and study opportunities. So there's little choice to stay home.

That makes perfect sense re the men in their 30’s , and possibly even late 20’s. But this appears to be at all ages.

@Babyroobs Sorry, forgot to tag you in my last comment.

Because their mummies love doing their laundry for their little Princes.

Also: women usually have to travel from the home to reach career and study opportunities. So there's little choice to stay home

I’m not really following this one, sorry. Don’t men have to do this, as well?

A couple of reasons.

As someone else already said, women often keep the house when a marriage breaks down and the man can't afford to run a second house.

Secondly, women are considered vulnerable if being made homeless and more likely to be allocated housing. Women are more likely to have children with them which means they can never be left completely homeless. Essentially, men are much more likely to end up on the streets and therefore end up back with parents as a last resort.

Also remember, in a male/female relationship females are generally the younger partner which also plays a part in such statistics.

@SofiaSoFar Also remember, in a male/female relationship females are generally the younger partner which also plays a part in such statistics

Wouldn't this mean that fewer young women would live at home, it more?

Your other points I think make sense for the older of the people on the graph, but I don’t think 56% of 24 year old men live at home because their ex kept the house.

@Tsort I know two men in that position in early 20's allocated a council/housing association house. Had children and when the relationship failed moved in with their parents again.

It's because women can't have the freedom and privacy they need in their parents home, while men don't care as much. Men are much less likely to worry their mothers if they don't come home at night.

Women often form relationships with older men. Between 24 and 30 a chunk of women will have children/form households with men aged 29/30 plus.

Social conditioning leading to men being less independent.

Men being conditioned to think they will be expected to provide financially for a family in their 30s and thus choosing to live with parents to save a nest egg towards this.

Yet another snide thread about adults living at home.
Where I am in London, even renting is extortionate. It's not like in years before when it was a lot cheaper and do able.
Incidentally, I also know more women then men who live at home. I don't even think about it as it's obvious why they do.
You are coming across as extremely judgemental.

because men need expect a woman to do their washing for them, and any other household task they find boring.
also mothers often collude with this, tolerating if not encouraging helplessness in sons but not in daughters.

@FreddyHG I’m sure there’s lots of people in that position. Thousands, even. It just seems highly unlikely to be that high a percentage of them. 56% of 24 year olds, the example I used above, is a LOT.

THIS!!

I thought this was probably a major driver.

Some of those women will be single parents in their own homes via social housing. Whilst the men stay at their mums' either legitimately because they're not together or because they don't want the responsibility of paying the bills like the mother has to/actually committing to the mother of his child/children.

My 24 year old son lives with me, rent free, and he can stay as long as he wants. He does his fair share of chores/cooking and if I go away I come back to a clean & tidy house, washing done etc. He is also ploughing as much of his salary into savings as he wants to buy a house (pipe dream, the prices go up faster than even serious savers can save). He would have been gone a long time ago if he could have afforded it; so there you have it, as it's been said a zillion times before it's often down to cost. If things don't change in the broken housing market there will be a lot more young people reluctantly living with their parents. Will people still be so judgy about it then?

Did you actually read the post?

Also: women usually have to travel from the home to reach career and study opportunities. So there's little choice to stay home.

Men are way more likely then women to commute further or relocate altogether for work.

Well as a female I left home at age 16 and I am the mother of adult sons still at home then I can well believe that more men stay at home for longer than women. In fact I am surprised the gap isn't bigger. I come from a very misogynist and sexist family that offered more support to male members of the family. In my background (working class), it was always easier for females to get rehomed from a homelessness/pregnancy point of view and that seemed like a daft opportunity to miss. Homeless shelters were predominantly catered towards longer term accommodations for men. I don't know if that's still the case but certainly was 20 years ago. I think part of it is young men don't get much support from society in general and therefore family are more willing to accommodate them for longer.

Added to that there is a distinctive difference between how boys and girls are treated, young men do not have the same level of domestic and problem-solving skills that young women are expected to have. I only had sons but was determined to treat all children equally in this matter.

There is another aspect that I would not be ideally suited to discuss, and that is mothers tend to have easier relationships with adult sons than adult daughters, and it makes an easier home environment for everyone to live in. I certainly did not get on with my mother and I do get on with my sons and I think this could be part of the dynamic.

Your last point is very interesting. It would be a really interesting piece of research.

LHReturns · Today 22:54
Because their mummies love doing their laundry for their little Princes

Wow, what a snidey remark!! Do you feel better for that?

My ds is still living at home because deposits for a house are stupidly expensive so it makes financial sense for him and his girlfriend to pay us a nominal rent and save as hard as they can to afford their own place.
And he does his own washing....

Yeah I did read it and the part about useless man children.
Try telling that to my 39 year old male friend who lives at home and is a carer for his disabled mum.

Cool. What does this have to do with the question asked, though? Which is ‘why so many more young men than women’?